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STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 


[*     JUL  29  1909     *] 

STUDIES  %^f,:^^ 
IN  CHRISTIANITY 


BY 


BORDEN  PARKER  BOWNE 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

^fte  Bibcrjsibe  ^te^^  <fl:ambribge 

1909 


COPYRIGHT,    1909,    BY   BORDEN  PARKER  BOWNB 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  March  igog 


PREFACE 

The  first  three  o£  these  Essays  have  been  sepa- 
rately published  before.  As  they  here  appear 
they  have  been  revised  and  considerably  extended. 

The  Essays  have  not  been  written  for  special- 
ists, nor  for  professional  unbelievers,  but  solely 
to  relieve  some  of  the  difficulties  under  which 
popular  religious  thought  labors  because  of 
misunderstanding.  Indeed,  the  entire  volume 
might  be  described  as  an  aid  to  progressive  or- 
thodoxy, or  as  an  attempt  to  combine  the  new 
theology  with  the  old  religion.  That  the  future 
as  well  as  the  past  belongs  to  the  old  religion  I 
am  perfectly  sure.  This  religion  has  often  been 
ignorantly  and  inadequately  conceived,  and  even 
caricatured  at  times  by  its  disciples,  but  it  has  the 
advantage  over  all  its  competitors  and  proposed 
substitutes  of  being  alive;  and  life  counts  for 
much  in  organic  history,  spiritual  as  well  as 
physical.  At  the  same  time  the  old  religion  may 
need  a  new  theology  for  its  better  expression 
and  formulation,  and  in  this  sense  a  new  theology 
may  be  a  valuable  aid  to  the  old  religion. 

Quite  unsuspected  by  the  noiser  champions, 
the  problems  of  religious  debate  are  fast  chang- 


vi  PREFACE 

I  ing   their  form.  The  old-fashioned  naturalism, 
[  with  its  naive  fancy,  the  more  nature  the  less 
1  God,  is  falling  into  discredit.    The  immanence 
;  of  God  in  natural  processes  permits  us  to  affirm 
a  supernatural  natural  and  a  natural  supernatu- 
ral, to  which  the  old-time  naturalistic  objections 
have  no  application.    For  the  same  reason  the 
old-fashioned  supernaturalism,  which  was  purely 
an  accident  of  the  deistic  philosophy,  has  under- 
gone   a    parallel    transformation.    The    super- 
naturalism  of  to-day  is   concerned   only  to  find 
God  in  nature,  life,  history,  miracle,  —  no  matter 
where  so  long  as  it  finds  him ;  but  it  finds  him 
^1  predominantly  in  law  and  life.  This  is  produc- 
I  ing  a  sanity  of  religious  thought  beyond  any- 
*  thing  known  in  the  past,  and  it  is  prophetic  of 
still  better  things  to  come. 

With  the  progressive  moralizing  of  religion 
\  a  corresponding  change  is  taking  place  in  the 
inner  life  itself.  Selfishness  can  work  in  any  field, 
and  it  has  made  in  religion  some  of  its  most 
odious  manifestations.  The  desire  to  escape 
punishment  and  to  "  get  off,"  or  be  "  let  off,"  has 
been  unpleasantly  prominent  in  religious  history. 
This  also  is  passing  away.  Not  merely  to  get 
something  from  God,  but  to  work  with  him  and 
be  like  him,  is  becoming  more  generally  the  re- 
ligious ideal.   Thus  the  element  of  gratitude  and 


PREFACE  vii 

active  aspiration  is  taking  precedence  of  the 
selfish  factor.  And  our  thought  of  rehgion  itself 
is  more  and  more  passing  from  the  conception  of 
a  yoke  and  a  burden  to  which  we  must  submit 
for  fear  of  something  worse,  to  the  conception  of 
religion  as  the  summit  and  crown  of  our  being,  as 
indeed  the  supreme  condition  of  large,  joyous, 
and  abundant  life.  Thus  the  old  religion,  while 
remaining  true  to  type,  is  gradually  freeing  itself 
from  the  crudities  of  early  thought,  manifesting 
its  essential  nature,  and  building  itself  into  its 
ideal  form.  To  help  toward  this  consummation 
is  the  purpose  of  this  book. 

Borden  Parker  Bowne. 

February  22, 1909. 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Christian  Revelation 1 

II.  The  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement     .        .        85 

III.  The  Christian  Life 195 

IV.  The  Modern  Conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  299 
V.  The  Church  and  Moral  Progress       .        .        .  327 

VI.  The  Church  and  the  Truth      ....      355 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION 


STUDIES  m  CHEISTIANITY 


THE  CHEISTIAN   REVELATION 

Our  Christian  faith  is,  that  God,  at  sundry  times 
and  in  divers  manners,  spake  unto  the  fathers  by 
the  prophets,  and  that,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 
he  revealed  himself  unto  men  by  his  Son.  This 
faith  will  last  as  long  as  the  Christian  Church; 
I  believe  it  will  last  as  long  as  the  human  race. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  possible  to  conceive  the  reve- 
lation, its  mode  and  meaning,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
obscure  the  truth  and  seriously  to  embarrass  faith. 
There  is  enough  of  this  misconception  in  popular 
religious  thought  to  warrant  a  brief  discussion  of 
the  subject.  It  is  not,  then,  a  question  as  to  the 
reality  of  revelation,  but  solely  as  to  the  manner 
of  conceiving  it. 

Of  God's  self -revealing  movement  the  Bible  is 
the  historical  and  literary  product  and  record. 
This  does  not  mean  that  God  has  not  revealed 
himself  elsewhere  and  in  other  manners ;  but  of 
that  revealing  movement  which  culminated  in 
Christianity  the  Bible  is  the  product  and  record. 


4  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

It  is  the  literature  which  grew  out  of  and  around 
the  revelation,  and  it  mediates  for  us  a  know- 
ledge of  the  revelation.  But  on  turning-  to  the 
Bible,  we  soon  become  conscious  of  needing  some 
guiding  principle  for  its  interpretation.  Except 
from  the  right  standpoint,  the  Bible  is  a  most 
embarrassing  book.  Much  of  it  seems  to  have  no 
connection  with  those  moral  and  religious  inter- 
ests which,  we  suppose,  give  revelation  its  motive 
and  value.  Instead  of  a  compact  expression  of 
doctrines  to  be  believed  and  of  duties  to  be  done, 
we  have  a  heterogeneous  collection  of  history, 
geography,  biography,  genealogy,  statistics,  lit- 
urgy, poetry,  prophecy,  sermons,  stories,  parables, 
letters,  and  such  like.  And  when  questions  of  con- 
duct are  touched  upon,  they  seem  to  have  little 
significance  for  us.  Temple  rites,  idol  worship, 
the  tiresome  purifications  of  the  Mosaic  law,  the 
disputes  between  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  the 
eating  of  things  offered  to  idols,  —  these,  and 
similar  obsolete  questions,  are  the  matters  dwelt 
upon ;  and  for  us  these  questions  are  as  dead 
as  the  men  who  raised  them.  What  concern  have 
we  with  prophetic  burdens  of  Egypt,  or  Moab,  or 
Tyre  ?  And  what  practical  wisdom  do  we  gain 
from  them  for  the  guidance  of  our  own  lives  ? 
By  following  out  this  line  of  thought,  one  might 
easily  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  Bible  is,  for 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  5 

us,  obsolete  and  worthless.  The  antiquarian  and 
student  of  ancient  life  might  possibly  find  his 
advantage  in  it,  but  the  plain,  every-day  man  and 
woman  have  to  worry  along  about  the  same  with 
the  Bible  as  without  it.  Indeed,  unless  we  use  it 
wisely,  we  may  be  even  worse  off  with  it  than 
without  it.  Illustration  is  found  in  the  demen- 
talized  textarians  and  their  whims  with  which  the 
history  of  the  Bible  abounds.  The  use  of  the 
Bible  as  a  book  for  vaticination  on  all  manner 
of  subjects  is  familiar  to  every  one.  It  would  be 
hard  also  to  find  a  single  step  of  progress,  ethical, 
intellectual,  religious,  political,  which  has  not 
been  resisted  and  condemned  by  texts  from  the 
Bible.    As  Dry  den  put  it :  — 

The  fly-blown  text  conceives  an  alien  brood, 
And  turns  to  maggots  what  was  meant  for  food. 

Thus  we  see  how  the  Bible  may  be  an  embar- 
rassing and  incredible  book,  conceived  as  a  di- 
vine revelation,  unless  we  get  the  right  point  of 
view.  For  this  insight  we  need  no  profound  schol- 
arship, or  long  and  close  communion  with  the 
higher  critics ;  the  conclusion  lies  on  the  surface 
for  every  one.  We  obviously  need,  then,  to  seek 
for  some  central  idea,  which  shall  unify  and  il- 
luminate the  whole,  if  we  are  to  find  any  supreme 
value  in  it.  And  such  an  idea  must  be  souoht  in 


6  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

a  better  conception  of  the  purpose  and  contents 
of  revelation.  Only  thus  can  we  give  these  dead 
questions  and  this  vanished  life  any  abiding  sig- 
nificance for  present  and  future  times. 

What,  then,  is  the  Christian  Revelation?  To 
this  question  many  answers  might  be  given ; 
but  the  one  which  best  sums  up  the  truth,  and 
best  brings  out  the  great  and  abiding  value 
of  Christian  teaching,  is  this :  The  Christian 
revelation  is  essentially  a  revelation  of  God.  It 
teaches  us  what  God  is,  and  what  he  means.  It 
is,  primarily  and  fundamentally,  a  revelation  of 
the  righteousness  and  grace  of  God.  It  tells  us 
how  God  feels  toward  us ;  what  he  has  made 
us  for ;  what  he  has  done  and  is  doing  for 
us;  how  we  are  to  think  of  life  and  its  meaning, 
of  death  and  destiny,  of  our  mutual  human 
relations  also,  and  the  spirit  in  which  we  are  to 
live.  The  answer  to  these  questions  constitutes 
the  gist  of  the  Christian  revelation ;  and  this 
answer  the  Church  forever  repeats  in  its  profes- 
sion of  faith  in  God  the  Father,  in  his  Son  our 
Savior  and  Lord,  in  the  inspiring  and  sanctifying 
Spirit,  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  in  the  kingdom 
of  God  upon  earth,  and  in  the  life  everlasting. 
These  ideas  are  at  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
religion  and  of  Christian  civilization  ;  and  these 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  7 

ideas  have  come  with  abiding  power  and  definite- 
ness  and  fullness  into  the  world's  thought  and 
life  only  along  the  line  of  God's  revelation  of 
himself  through  the  prophets  and  through  his 
Son. 

The  Christian  revelation,  then,  is  not  the  Bible, 
though  it  is  in  the  Bible.  It  consists  essentially 
in  certain  ways  of  thinking  about  God,  his 
character,  his  purpose  in  our  creation,  and  his 
relation  to  us.  It  has  these  great  ideas  for  its 
contents,  and  it  is  to  be  approached,  studied,  and 
understood  only  in  connection  with  these  ideas. 
They  constitute  its  chief  value  for  us.  However 
the  pentateuchal  question  might  fall  out,  or  what- 
ever our  view  concerning  the  second  Isaiah,  we 
are  Christian  so  long  as  we  hold  the  Christian 
view  of  God  and  man  and  their  mutual  relations; 
and  the  only  abiding  significance  of  the  Bible  lies 
in  helping  us  to  this  view.  With  this  view,  we 
can  dispense  with  everything  else;  and  without 
this  view,  it  matters  little  what  else  we  have. 
And  if  the  Bible  helps  us  to  this  view ;  if  this 
long  history  is  an  illustration  and  object  lesson 
whereby  we  may  discern  what  God  is  and  what 
he  means, — then  its  value  and  perennial  signifi- 
cance begin  to  appear.  And  if  we  further  find 
that  nowhere  else  can  the  divine  character  and 
purpose  be  so  clearly  discerned,  then  it  is  mani- 


8  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

fest  that  in  the  historic  movement  out  of  which 
Christianity  has  come,  we  have  a  revehition  of 
God  which  outranks  in  value  all  others  which  he 
may  have  made,  or  which  men  may  have  feigned 
or  imagined. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  need  and 
value  of  the  Christian  revelation  are  to  be  de- 
termined. When  we  consider  it  as  a  dosfmatic 
treatise  in  abstract  speculative  theology,  or  as  a 
text-book  in  ethics,  or  as  anything  but  a  revela- 
tion of  God,  it  is  easy  to  doubt  whether  it  has 
any  special  and  abiding  religious  value.  As  thus 
conceived,  the  matter  seems  neither  particularly 
new  nor  especially  profitable.  By  carrying  the 
abstraction  far  enough,  we  can  make  all  religions 
look  alike.  It  is  also  easy  to  pick  out  detached 
ethical  precepts  and  deep  mystical  sayings  from 
ancient  life  and  literature,  and  especially  from 
the  sacred  books  of  other  religions,  and  thus 
finally  to  present  those  religions  as  rivaling 
Christianity  itself.  But  the  matter  is  very  differ- 
ent when  we  consider  revelation  as  the  self-reve- 
lation of  God,  and  when  we  consider  its  funda- 
mental and  central  ideas  and  inspirations.  Then 
we  first  begin  to  get  some  conception  of  its  deep 
meaning  and  inestimable  value ;  and  some  con- 
ception also  of  the  world-wide  difference  between 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  9 

the  Bible  and  all  other  scriptures,  between  Christ 
and  all  other  masters.  The  questions  men  most 
need  to  have  answered  are  questions  about  God, 
his  character,  his  purpose  in  our  creation,  and 
his  relation  to  us.  We  can  find  out  from  con- 
science and  experience  how  to  live  together  in  the 
daily  round;  but  what  does  life  itself  mean,  and 
what  is  its  outcome  to  be  ?  With  these  questions 
the  earnest  thought  of  the  world,  the  religions 
and  philosophies,  have  busied  themselves  from 
the  beginning ;  and  to  these  questions  every 
well-instructed  Christian  child  has  a  distinct  and 
sublime  answer  which  the  sages  and  philosophers 
of  the  non-Christian  world  have  souofht  in  vain  to 
find.  And  the  deepest  lack  of  that  world  is  the 
lack  of  just  those  ways  of  thinking  about  God 
and  his  relation  to  us  which  we  have  learned  from 
his  revelation  of  himself.  This  lack  is  the  great 
source  of  the  failure  of  the  heathen  world,  the 
source  of  its  moral  and  speculative  aberrations, 
of  its  hopelessness  also,  and  of  its  blinding  and 
withering  superstitions.  What  that  world  most 
of  all  needs  is  the  good  news  of  God.  This  only 
can  break  the  spells  and  disperse  the  illusions, 
because  of  which  the  people  sit  in  darkness  and 
the  shadow  of  death,  being  bound  in  affliction 
and  iron.  They  do  not  need  the  Bible  considered 
as  a   book.    They  need   the    Christian   way   of 


10  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

thinking  about  God  and  his  purposes  concerning 
men ;  and  they  need  the  Bible  only  as  it  helps 
them  to  this  view.  And  it  helps  beyond  all 
estimate  in  this  regard.  We  have  so  wrangled 
over  the  geology  of  Genesis  as  utterly  to  miss 
the  immense  significance  of  the  first  verse,  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth."  With  that  all  pantheism,  polytheism,  and 
idolatry  vanish.  "No  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Set;  no 
Anu,  Hea,  and  Bel ;  no  Sun,  Moon,  and  Venus  ; 
no  Moloch,  Rimmon,  and  Ashtoreth,"  whose 
worship  defiled  the  nations  for  ages,  but  God, 
the  Everlasting  Father  and  Lord.  The  more  we 
study  religious  history,  the  greater  the  value  of 
the  Bible  appears. 

There  has  been,  and  still  is,  a  great  deal  of 
superficial  thought  in  judging  of  revelation.  Since 
the  comparative  study  of  religion  began,  many 
have  hoped,  and  more  have  feared,  that  Chris- 
tianity would  suffer  when  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  other  great  religious  systems.  Enthusi- 
astic students  have  eagerly  studied  the  sacred 
books  of  the  East,  and  have  found  abundant 
traces  that  God  has  never  left  himself  without  a 
witness.  And  they  have  gathered  up  golden 
words  and  profound  sayings  from  the  ancient 
sages,  without  giving  us  any  hint  of  the  moun- 
tain of  chaff  or  dross  in  which  they  were  hidden. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  11 

In  this  way  the  impression  has  become  quite 
general  that  those  sacred  books  are  full  of 
ancient  wisdom  and  religious  insight,  and  are 
patterns  of  sound  and  wholesome  moral  teach- 
ing. In  the  popular  mind,  indeed,  purely  im- 
aginative works,  like  "  The  Light  of  Asia,"  have 
passed  for  literal  reproductions  of  those  vener- 
able faiths.  In  this  way  many  hopes  and  fears, 
both  equally  groundless,  have  been  raised;  and 
prejudice  has  taken  the  place  of  scholarly  study 
and  criticism.  Fortunately,  the  translation  of 
the  various  sacred  books  of  the  race  is  changing 
this  state  of  things,  and  is  bringing  the  study  of 
those  ancient  and  outlying  faiths  back  into  that 
wholesome,  matter-of-fact  atmosphere  in  which 
alone  it  can  reach  any  valuable  and  permanent 
results.  Max  Miiller,  in  the  general  preface  to 
the  translation  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
calls  attention  to  the  extra vao:ant  fancies  which 
have  been  cherished  concerning  the  contents  of 
these  old  books,  and  says :  "  Readers  who  have 
been  led  to  believe  that  the  Vedas  of  the  ancient 
Brahmins,  the  Avesta  of  the  Zoroastrians,  the 
Tripitaka  of  the  Buddhists,  the  Kings  of  Confu- 
cius, or  the  Koran  of  Mohammed,  are  books  full 
of  primeval  wisdom  and  religious  enthusiasm,  or 
at  least  of  sound  and  simple  moral  teaching,  will 
be  disappointed   on  consulting  these  volumes." 


12  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

In  another  passage  he  says  :  "  By  the  side  of  so 
much  that  is  fresh,  natural,  simple,  beautiful, 
true,  they  contain  so  much  that  is  not  only 
unmeaning,  artificial,  and  silly,  but  even  hideous 
and  repellent." 

The  comparison  of  the  Christian  Scriptures 
with  the  other  sacred  books  of  the  world  has  too 
often  been  made  in  a  partisan  interest.  Some- 
times those  books  have  been  rejected  outright 
as  manifest  works  of  darkness,  with  the  aim  of 
exalting  the  Christian  revelation.  Sometimes,  with 
equal  unwisdom,  they  have  been  extravagantly 
praised  as  altogether  comparable  with  our  own 
Scriptures.  But  in  both  cases  there  has  been  over- 
sight of  the  fact  that  the  central  idea  in  any  reli- 
gion is  its  idea  of  God.  Hence,  both  parties  have 
wasted  time  and  strength  over  false  issues.  Chris- 
tian partisans  have  ransacked  ancient  history  and 
literature  for  religious  superstitions  and  practical 
abominations,  as  specimens  of  what  man  can  do 
without  revelation.  And  anti-Christian  partisans 
have  done  the  same  thing  in  order  to  gather  fine 
sentiments  with  which  to  confound  their  oppo- 
nents. Both  parties  were  equally  in  error.  Scat- 
tered ethical  maxims  and  stray  religious  truths 
do  not  make  a  religion  ;  we  must  rather  judge  it 
by  its  general  theory  of  things,  by  its  thought 
of  God,  of  creation,  of  man,  of  life,  of  destiny, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  13 

and  by  the  inspiration  which  it  furnishes.  These 
things  are  the  essence  of  a  religion  and  the  root 
of  its  power.  Different  systems  might  have  many 
ethical  precepts  in  common  and  many  similar  ex- 
pressions of  piety ;  but  so  long  as  they  differ  in 
their  fundamental  aims  and  ideas,  only  the  utmost 
superficiality  would  think  of  identifying  them.  In 
a  sense  religious  feeling  can  attach  itself  to  any- 
thing, as  a  fetish  or  totem ;  but  a  religion  for 
developed  humanity,  and  which  develops  human- 
ity, must  be  a  religion  for  the  whole  man.  It 
must  satisfy  the  intellect,  the  conscience,  the 
affections,  and  must  furnish  the  will  with  a 
supreme  inspiration.  Any  religious  system  is 
imperfect  in  the  measure  in  which  it  falls  below 
this  requirement. 

Applying  this  standard,  we  see  the  mighty 
gulf  between  the  Christian  and  other  systems  in 
their  adaptation  to  human  needs.  The  banks  of 
the  stream  of  time  are  lined  with  religions  which 
have  perished  because  they  could  not  keep  pace 
with  intellectual  development ;  and  many  of  the 
Asiatic  religions  are  dying  before  our  eyes  from 
this  cause.  The  truth  that  is  in  them  is  wrapped 
up  with  so  much  that  is  puerile,  stupid,  and  re- 
volting, that  they  are  doomed  to  perish.  They 
are  in  a  worse  plight  in  relation  to  conscience. 
They  have  so  debased  the  thought  of  God,  and 


14  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

have  sanctioned  so  much  of  vileness,  that  as  soon 
as  conscience  awakes,  it  revolts  against  them. 
And  they  are  especially  lacking  in  respect  to  any 
stimulus  for  noble  living.  Their  predominant 
note  is  pessimism  and  despair.  They  find  no 
worthy  ethical  purpose  in  creation,  but  only  an 
endless  and  aimless  doing  and  undoing,  weaving 
and  unweaving,  without  any  justifying  outcome. 
The  supreme  hope  which  the  great  Indian 
religions  hold  out  for  man  is  to  escape  from 
personal  existence,  either  by  absorption  or 
annihilation.  There  is  no  hint  of  a  Father  in 
heaven  in  the  Christian  sense,  no  hint  of  a  divine 
meaning  in  the  world,  no  hint  of  a  divine  deliver- 
ance wrought  out  by  a  divine  Deliverer,  no  hint 
of  an  ever-present  Spirit  leading  souls  to  right- 
eousness and  perfecting  them  in  goodness,  no 
hint  of  life  eternal  in  which  the  faithful  soul 
shall  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  forever.  To  drop 
into  darkness,  and  escape  the  woe  and  burden  of 
this  illusion  we  call  our  life,  is  their  great  hope 
for  the  race.  The  Christian  view  of  God  and  the 
world  and  the  meaning  of  life  is  the  precise  and 
exact  contradiction  of  all  this;  and  yet,  because 
of  scattered  moral  maxims  and  stray  gleams  of 
religious  insight,  many  have  been  pleased  to  hold 
that  Christianity  has  nothing  new  or  valuable  to 
offer.  The  superficiality  of  such  a  view  appears 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  15 

as  soon  as  we  ask  for  the  central  ideas  and  inspi- 
rations of  the  reHgious  systems.  And  it  is  to  be 
desired  that  the  admirers  of  the  Asiatic  religions 
who  now  and  then  appear  among  us  would  be 
at  the  pains  to  master  those  ideas  before  begin- 
ning their  work  as  apostles.  If  we  would  under- 
stand Hinduism,  or  Buddhism,  or  Confucianism, 
we  must  study  them  in  their  basal  ideas  and  in 
the  civilizations  they  have  made.  By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them. 

I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  the  desire  to  find 
the  non-Christian  religions  as  elevated  as  pos- 
sible. I  have  no  objection  even  to  parliaments 
of  religions,  provided  they  do  not  hide  the  facts 
behind  vague  and  general  phrases,  and  provided 
they  escape  the  defiling  touch  of  the  advertising 
harpy.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  a  Christian 
should  not  rejoice  at  finding  traces  of  God's 
presence  and  inspiration  everywhere  among  men, 
especially  as  his  own  Bible  teaches  him  that 
there  is  a  Light  which  lighteneth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world.  And  for  both  a  Christian 
and  a  theist  it  must  be  clear  that  the  great  non- 
Christian  systems  have  had  a  place  in  the  divine 
purpose  for  men.  But  this  does  not  imply  their 
perfection  or  their  finality.  As  Judaism  was  the 
beginning  and  not  the  end,  and  would  have  been 
a  failure  if  it  had  not  merged  into  the  broader 


16  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

thought  of  Christianity,  so  these  other  systems, 
at  best,  were  only  for  a  time.  They  never  could 
make  man  perfect,  or  build  him  to  his  best  estate. 
There  is  no  call  to  blacken,  and  also  none  to 
"whitewash.  After  all  that  cliarity  or  sympathy 
can  truly  say  in  their  behalf,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  their  earher  forms  were  their  best  and  purest, 
and  that  they  have  fallen  below  recovery.  They 
have  no  power  to  save  others  or  themselves.  We 
may  say,  for  instance,  that  the  early  Hindus  set 
out  on  their  way  toward  God,  and  that  their  reli- 
gious literature  is  the  record  of  their  Godward 
journey ;  but  when  we  consider  the  abominations 
of  the  Hindu  pantheon  and  of  the  popular  Hindu 
religion,  we  must  admit  that  somehow  or  other 
they  grievously  missed  their  way.  The  thwarting, 
paralyzing,  and  defiling  influences  of  Hindu 
society  have  concentrated  and  incarnated  them- 
selves in  the  Hindu  religion.  India  is  socially, 
industrially,  and  politically  paralyzed  by  her  reli- 
gion. Caste  is  sanctified,  the  masses  are  hopeless, 
the  people  are  divided  by  all  manner  of  impass- 
able gulfs  due  to  their  religion.  If  the  Hindu 
mind  could  be  swept  clean  of  all  its  religious 
conceptions  and  their  place  taken  by  the  ideas  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Serm.on  on  the  Mount, 
it  would  be  for  India  a  blessing  great  beyond 
all  comparison.  And  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  17 

political  or  social  or  industrial  progress  can  be 
made  in  India  until  the  present  religious  concep- 
tions have  been  swept  away  or  profoundly  modi- 
fied. After  all,  fruit  is  the  final  test ;  when  any 
religious  system  has  had  a  people  under  its  influ- 
ence for  ages,  it  may  rightly  be  judged  by  its 
fruits.  Tried  by  this  standard,  Asia,  past  and 
present,  is  the  sufficient  condemnation  of  the 
Asiatic  religions. 

The  general  good  nature  with  which  the  outly- 
ing religious  systems  are  now  commonly  regarded 
must  not  lead  us  into  overlooking  these  facts.  As 
we  have  before  said,  if  we  carry  the  abstraction 
far  enough,  we  may  make  all  religions  seem  alike. 
Thus,  we  may  discover  that  they  all  believe  in 
God,  and  hence  we  may  conclude  that  at  bottom 
there  is  no  difference.  But  this  is  only  a  verbal 
illusion,  and  does  not  remove  the  fact  that  the 
conception  of  God,  and  his  purposes,  and  his 
relation  to  us,  may  exhibit  world-wide  differences 
in  different  religious  systems.  Or,  again,  we  may 
say  that  all  religions  have  an  adaptation  to  their 
adherents,  so  that  there  is  no  one  religion  that  is 
best  for  all ;  but  this  too  is  an  abstract  verbalism. 
The  deification  of  evil  and  superstition  can  never 
be  sanctified,  or  made  other  than  destructive,  by 
such  reflections.  Religions  may  be  defiled  and 
defiling.   Finally,  under   the  influence  of   some 


18  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

vague  notions  of  the  divine  immanence,  we  may 
say  that  God  has  revealed  himself  in  all  of  these 
systems.  But  unless  we  are  willing  to  put  all 
revelations  on  the  same  plane,  and  to  deny  man 
all  influence  in  the  unfolding  of  religious  thought 
and  activity,  we  gain  nothing  from  this  conten- 
tion. Religious  thinkers  who  have  attained  to 
any  ethical  insight  would  not  be  willing  to  look 
upon  the  gross  immoralities  and  depraving  abom- 
inations of  many  of  the  ethnic  religions  as  reve- 
lations of  the  divine  character  and  will.  And 
when  these  are  eliminated,  we  still  have  to  admit 
that  the  revelation  in  the  several  systems  is  of 
varying  degrees  of  adequacy  and  completeness. 
And  then  we  have  to  inquire  which  of  the  vari- 
ous revelations  brings  us  nearest  to  God,  gives 
us  the  highest  thought  of  God  and  man,  of  their 
mutual  relations,  and  of  the  divine  purpose  in 
the  creation  of  man,  and  furnishes  the  highest 
and  most  effective  inspiration  for  human  living. 
Put  in  this  way,  the  problem  solves  itself. 
However  divine  we  may  think  the  extra-Christian 
religions,  the  Christian  religion  is  diviner  still. 
Whatever  service  they  may  have  done  in  the 
ruder  and  cruder  stages  of  life,  they  are  quite 
unable  to  make  man  or  society  perfect,  or  build 
them  into  perfection.  Our  sincerest  admirers  of 
Buddhism    or    Confucianism    prefer    to    admire 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  19 

afar  off.  They  would  not  care  to  live  in  a  com- 
munity developed  from  and  dominated  by  the 
systems  in  question.  For  it  is  perfectly  plain  that 
vrhen  the  mental  and  moral  nature  is  developed, 
we  must  make  demands  upon  any  religion  which 
claims  our  allegiance  which  these  systems  can 
never  meet.  As  already  pointed  out,  a  religion 
for  developed  humanity,  and  one  capable  of 
developing  humanity,  must  satisfy  man's  entire 
nature  —  the  intellect,  the  conscience,  the  affec- 
tions— and  must  furnish  the  will  with  a  supreme 
end  and  inspiration.  It  is,  then,  right  that  we 
should  be  well-disposed  toward  all  non-Christian 
religions,  and  we  should  be  glad  to  recognize 
any  good  that  may  be  in  them ;  but  this  must 
not  lead  us  to  overlook  their  imperfection  and 
practical  inefficiency,  and  the  resulting  neces- 
sity of  replacing  them  by  something  better.  As 
soon  as  they  come  into  contact  with  our  West- 
ern thought,  science,  and  individualism,  it  be- 
comes apparent  that  their  day  is  done,  and  that 
the  final  alternative  will  be  Christianity  or  irre- 
hgion. 

When  we  compare  Christianity  with  the  out- 
lying religions,  we  feel  its  measureless  superiority. 
We  feel  it  equally  when  we  compare  it  with  the 
revelation  of  nature.    Anti-Christian  speculators 


20  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

in  Christian  countries  have  always  been  accus- 
tomed to  emphasize  this  revelation,  and  to  claim 
that  it  gives  us  all  the  light  we  need.  Now,  that 
there  is  a  revelation  in  nature,  in  the  mind,  in 
history,  the  wise  Christian  gladly  admits  and 
steadfastly  maintains ;  but  that  it  is  so  adequate 
and  complete  as  to  leave  nothing  more  to  be  de- 
sired is  not  so  clear.  In  a  Christian  community, 
where  Christian  thought  prevails,  a  philosopher 
may  succeed  in  giving  reasons  for  a  faith  other- 
wise learned,  and  may  conclude  that  he  has  de- 
duced it  for  himself.  But  this  is  illusory,  even 
for  speculative  truth,which  lies  within  the  possible 
range  of  the  reflective  faculty.  Thus,  the  unity 
of  God,  the  doctrine  without  which  rational 
science  would  perish,  has  come  to  men  mainly 
through  the  influence  of  Christian  teaching. 
Philosophy  has  followed  after,  and  found  reasons 
for  the  doctrine;  but  the  doctrine  itself  has 
reached  the  mind  of  the  modern  world  chiefly 
through  Christian  teaching,  which  has  made 
it  a  fixed  tradition  and  possession  of  modern 
thought. 

Still  more  doubtful  is  the  revelation  of  nature 
with  respect  to  the  divine  character  and  purpose. 
The  difficulties  that  meet  us  here  are  such  that  of 
late  years  the  revelation  of  nature  has  been  less 
confidently  appealed   to,  and  the  more  earnest 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  21 

skeptics  have  scoffed  at  it,  or  have  greeted  it 
with  moody  and  scornful  laughter.  A  revelation 
of  power  or  skill  alone  furnishes  no  basis  for 
religion.  We  need,  in  addition,  a  revelation  of 
moral  character  and  of  moral  purpose.  And  here  it 
is  that  the  revelation  of  nature  is  ambiguous  and 
incomplete.  This  fact  was  never  felt  so  keenly  as 
at  present.  The  easy-going  optimism  of  the  past 
and  the  naive  anthropomorphic  interpretations  of 
the  world  are  daily  growing  more  difficult.  The 
advance  of  knowledge  has  revealed  so  many  as- 
pects of  evil  and  so  much  that  we  cannot  ration- 
ally interpret.  We  consider  the  raven  and  rapine 
of  nature,  the  apparently  meaningless  aspects  of 
things,  also,  and  the  long  ages  in  which  fire  and 
slag  and  slime  held  barren  sway.  Of  the  lower 
forms  of  life,  how  few  seem  to  have  any  mean- 
ing? We  look  at  them  in  amazement  and  aston- 
ishment, and  ask  ourselves.  How  can  these  things 
be?  Nor  is  human  history  much  more  intelligible. 
For  the  great  mass  of  men  there  has  been  no  his- 
tory, but  only  animal  need  and  craving,  mostly 
unsatisfied.  The  many  races,  their  alienations, 
their  unending  wars,  their  mutual  slaughter,  fur- 
nish a  grim  and  difficult  problem.  And  the  few 
races  which  have  climbed  to  some  measure  of  civ- 
ilization have  soon  grown  weary  of  the  burden  as 
something  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  It  is  hard  in- 


22  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

deed  to  see  how  any  one  can  look  seriously  at  the 
history  o£  India,  of  Egypt,  of  Central  and  West- 
ern Asia,  of  the  nations  and  races  that  have  lived 
on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  without 
great  disquietude  of  spirit.  With  our  Christian 
faith  we  can  indeed  get  on  by  postponing  the 
problem  and  falling  back  on  trust  in  God,  but  a 
purely  inductive  study  without  such  faith  could 
hardly  fail  to  "lend  evil  dreams." 

When  we  consider  the  general  forms  of  nature, 
organic  and  inorganic,  and  the  general  facts  of 
history,  we  are  left  in  great  uncertainty  as  to  their 
meaning.  And  we  are  no  better  off  when  we  look 
at  the  life  of  the  individual.  The  o^eneral  form  of 
our  life,  with  its  marked  prominence  of  the  phy- 
sical and  the  animal,  is  itself  a  stumbling-block. 
There  seems  to  be  something  almost  grotesque  in 
this  utter  subjection  of  spiritual  beings  to  animal 
needs.  Then  we  note  the  uncertainty  of  our  life 
and  lot,  the  seeming  accidents  of  health  and  for- 
tune, the  many  turnings  and  overturnings  in 
which  we  can  discern  no  plan,  the  things  which 
have  impressed  men  with  the  sense  of  a  blind 
fate  or  a  blinder  chance,  which  sports  with  men, 
and  by  which  our  best  plans  are  often  thwarted 
and  brouofht  to  nau2"ht. 

Thus  in  no  realm  does  the  great  cosmic  order 
seem  to  be  working  definitely  at  any  intelligible 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  23 

task,  least  of  all  at  any  moral  task.  These  facts 
are  not  incompatible  with  the  divine  wisdom 
and  goodness.  Our  trouble  with  them  may  be 
only  the  shadow  of  our  own  ignorance ;  yet  as 
they  appear  they  point  to  neither  wisdom  nor 
goodness.  Because  of  our  thoughtless  optimism 
we  have  generally  ignored  these  facts,  or  we 
have  regarded  them  from  the  standpoint  of  Chris- 
tian teaching;  and  thus  we  have  failed  to  get  the 
impression  of  dismay  which  a  purely  logical  study 
of  the  facts  would  furnish.  This  explains  the 
pessimism  which  has  seized  upon  so  many  earnest 
minds  which  have  abandoned  the  Christian  faith. 
It  is  definitely  settled  at  last  that  whoever  has 
words  of  eternal  life,  science  and  philosophy 
have  them  not.  The  conceptions  of  God  which 
are  necessary  to  love  and  trust  must  be  sought 
elsewhere.  It  was  a  favorite  thought  with  Les- 
sing,  and  has  often  been  repeated,  that  the  need 
of  revelation  will  pass  with  time,  as  reason  will 
gradually  penetrate  to  the  rational  ground  of  all 
religious  truth,  and  will  at  last  stand  in  its  own 
right.  But  this  may  be  doubted  for  a  double 
reason  :  First,  the  basal  factors  of  the  Christian 
religion  are  not  merely  rational  truths  to  be  dis- 
covered by  reflection  ;  they  are  also,  and  more 
especially,  facts  to  be  learned  by  evidence.  God's 
goodness   and   righteousness   and    his   gracious 


24  STUDIES  m  CHRISTIANITY 

purpose  towards  men  are  questions  of  fact  to  be 
answered  by  no  introspection,  but  only  by  con- 
sulting his  word  and  works.  In  the  next  place, 
it  is  very  doubtful  if  the  human  mind  will  ever 
attain  during  its  earthly  existence  to  any  satis- 
factory interpretation  of  God's  methods  in  the 
universe.  Their  mystery  and  impenetrability  grow 
more  and  more  marked;  and  the  impression 
deepens  that  his  ways  are  not  as  our  ways,  nor  his 
thoughts  as  our  thoughts.  The  problem  grows 
faster  than  our  knowledge  ;  and  more  than  ever, 
for  faith  and  trust  in  this  awful  God,  do  we  need 
the  historic  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Here  we  have,  not  indeed  a  God  whom  we  under- 
stand, but  one  whom  we  can  trust  while  we  do 
not  understand.  I  do  not  think  that  Christianity 
removes  many,  if  any,  of  the  intellectual  difficul- 
ties we  feel  in  contemplating  life  and  the  world ; 
it  rather  outflanks  them  by  a  revelation  of  God 
which  makes  it  possible  to  trust  and  love  him, 
notwithstanding  the  mystery  of  his  ways,  and 
which  assures  us  that  all  good  things  are  safe, 
and  are  moving  on  and  up. 

Through  graves  and  ruins  and  the  wrecks  of  things, 
Borne  ever  Godward  with  increasing  might. 

The  great  significance  of  the  Christian  reve- 
lation, then,  does  not  lie  in  its  contribution  to 
ethics  or  to  speculative  theology,  though  it  has 


THE   CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  25 

done  something  in  both  of  these  realms;  but 
rather  in  this,  that  back  of  the  mystery  and 
uncertainty  of  our  own  lives,  back  of  the  appar- 
ent aimlessness  of  much  history,  and  back  of 
the  woe  and  horror  of  much  more,  it  reveals 
God,  the  almighty  Friend  and  Lover  of  men, 
the  Chief  of  burden-bearers,  and  the  Leader  of 
all  in  self-sacrifice.  Over  the  seething  chaos  there 
broods  a  Spirit  divine ;  and  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting  there  stretches  a  broad  bow  of  promise 
and  of  light. 

Such  is  the  Christian  revelation  —  a  revelation 
of  God,  of  his  righteousness,  his  love,  his  gra- 
cious purpose,  and  his  gracious  work.  As  such 
it  is 

The  fountain  light  of  all  our  day, 
A  master  light  of  all  our  seeing. 

It  is  a  great  spiritual  force  at  the  head  of  all 
the  beneficent  and  inspiring  forces  which  make 
for  the  upbuilding  of  men  and  the  bringing  in 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  If  we  would  know  some 
things  we  must  turn  to  nature,  or  to  history,  or 
to  psychology  ;  but  if  we  would  know  what  God 
is,  and  what  he  means  for  men,  we  must  come  to 
the  Christian  revelation,  especially  as  completed 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Here  only  do  we  find  the  Father 
adequately  revealed. 

The  system  of  Christian  thought  about  God 


26  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  man  and  their  mutual  relations,  when  seen 
in  its  simplicity,  is  worthy  of  all  acceptation.  If 
it  be  a  dream  it  is  the  greatest  dream  humanity 
has  ever  dreamed.  Our  hope  for  ourselves  and 
for  our  race  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  it.  If 
God  be  such  a  being  as  Christianity  declares,  we 
have  a  sure  foundation  for  the  highest  faith  and 
the  noblest  endeavor.  But  we  often  fail  duly  to 
appreciate  this  revelation,  or  we  make  ourselves 
needless  difficulties  in  understanding  it,  because 
of  sundry  misconceptions;  which  we  now  pro- 
ceed to  consider. 

As  the  world  is  very  different  from  what  we 
should  expect  a  work  of  perfect  wisdom,  power, 
and  goodness  would  be,  so  God's  revelation  of 
himself  is  very  different  in  its  mode  and  instru- 
ments from  what  we  should  have  expected.  And 
we  have  commonly  come  to  the  study  of  the  sub- 
ject with  various  preconceived  notions  concern- 
ing revelation,  and  these  have  proved  scarcely 
less  disastrous  in  biblical  study  than  similar 
notions  have  proved  in  physical  science.  It  is 
very  easy,  in  an  abstract  way,  to  determine  what 
revelation  must  be,  and  these  abstract  determi- 
nations often  make  it  difficult  to  perceive  what 
revelation  really  is.  And  we  are  not  willing  to 
allow  it  to  be  what  examination  shows  it  to  be ; 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  27 

but  we  insist  on  wresting  it  into  some  conformity 
with  our  preconceived  notions  of  what  revelation 
must  be. 

The  simplest  and  clearest  notion  of  revelation 
identifies  it  with  the  Bible,  and  makes  it  the 
Word  of  God.  Various  reasons,  historical  and 
exegetical,  unite  in  recommending  this  concep- 
tion. This  Word,  again,  was  given  by  inspira- 
tion, and  this,  in  turn,  is  most  easily  conceived 
as  dictation.  When  the  things  thus  dictated  were 
written  down  and  gathered  up  into  a  single 
volume,  they  formed  the  one  infallible  Word  of 
God.  This  notion  is  level  to  the  lowest  under- 
standing, and  a  great  many  biblical  phrases 
readily  lend  themselves  to  it.  With  such  a  con- 
ception it  was  only  natural  to  expect  to  find 
everything  in  the  book  as  perfect  and  complete 
as  its  divine  author.  Infallibility  was  a  neces- 
sary consequence.  To  admit  error  of  any  kind 
was  to  abandon  the  Bible  altogether.  For  a  long 
time  it  was  held  that  even  the  language  was  per- 
fect ;  and  the  suggestion  that  the  Greek  of  the 
New  Testament  was  not  classical  was  resented  as 
little  less  than  heresy.  It  certainly  was  not  to  be 
thought  of,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  write  as 
good  Greek  as  mortal  men,  and  heathens  at  that. 

This  conception  of  a  dictated  book  has  always 
ruled  popular  theological  thought,  and  for  mani- 


28  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

fest  reasons.  The  notion  of  a  revelation  through 
history,  through  the  moral  life  of  a  community, 
through  the  insight  of  godly  men,  is  compara- 
tively difficult  and  uncertain.  It  is  not  so  easy  to 
see  where  and  how  the  Divine  comes  in,  or  how  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  human.  It  admits,  too,  of 
no  such  definite  statutory  formulation,  and  it  can- 
not be  so  readily  used  in  dogmatic  construction, 
and  especially  in  dogmatic  f  ulmination.  A  formal 
verbal  statement,  on  the  other  hand,  is  something 
sure  and  steadfast.  It  is  convenient  and  portable 
also,  and  when  prefaced  by  "  thus  saith  the  Lord," 
it  cannot  fail  to  put  to  flight  the  armies  of  the 
aliens.  Nevertheless,  this  conception  is  a  mistake, 
and  a  great  part  of  our  difficulties  in  this  field  are 
due  to  its  implicit  or  explicit  presence.  For  clear- 
ing up  this  matter,  a  word  is  needed  concerning 
inspiration. 

That  the  Scriptures  are  the  product  of  inspi- 
ration is  the  firm  faith  of  the  Church.  The  au- 
thors were  not  left  to  their  own  devices,  or  to  the 
blind  gropings  of  their  own  understanding ;  but 
they  spoke  and  wrote  under  the  actuating  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  much  clearly  appears 
from  a  study  of  the  writings  themselves,  and  more 
especially  from  a  comparison  of  them  with  the 
other  sacred  writings  of  the  race.  This  divine 
influence  and  guidance  are  more  manifest  to-day 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  29 

than  ever  before ;  for  we  see  more  clearly  how 
difficult  was  the  problem  to  be  solved.  While  other 
writers  lost  themselves  in  wild  cosmogonies,  and 
fictitious  science,  and  fantastic  dreams,  the  writers 
of  the  Bible  maintain  the  most  extraordinary  so- 
berness and  reticence  on  these  points.  The  errors 
into  which  they  may  have  fallen  are  comparatively 
few  in  any  case,  and  they  in  no  way  defeat  the 
revelation  of  God  at  which  the  writers  aim.  The 
unique  character  of  the  Scriptures  in  this  respect 
can  be  appreciated  only  by  comparison  with  the 
other  bibles  of  the  race. 

So,  then,  we  may  say  that  the  Scriptures  were 
inspired ;  that  is,  were  written  by  men  who  were 
moved  and  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But 
this  does  not  mean  that  they  were  dictated  by  an 
Infallible  Intelligence.  The  presence  of  inspira- 
tion is  discernible  in  the  product;  but  the  mean- 
ing and  measure  of  inspiration  cannot  be  decided 
by  abstract  reflection,  but  only  by  study  of  the 
outcome.  What  inspiration  is  must  be  learned  from 
what  it  does.  We  have  no  apriori  conception  of 
inspiration  from  which  we  can  infer  its  essential 
nature.  Neither  are  we  permitted  to  say  that  in- 
spiration always  means  the  same  thing;  for  inspi- 
ration may  have  different  degrees.  For  instance, 
the  degree  of  inspiration  necessary  to  write  the 
Book  of  Esther  would  be  very  different  from  that 


30  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

needed  for  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  or  the  Paul- 
ine epistles.  Hence  we  must  not  determine  the 
character  of  the  books  from  the  inspiration,  but 
must  rather  determine  the  nature  of  the  inspi- 
ration from  the  books. 

But  how  can  there  be  inspiration  without  dic- 
tation? To  this  question  there  is  no  theoretical 
answer.  The  influence  of  one  human  mind  upon 
another  is  a  mystery ;  much  more  so  is  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Divine  Spirit  upon  the  human  spirit. 
We  can  only  fall  back  here  upon  the  analogies 
of  our  own  experience.  In  a  perfectly  real  sense 
a  teacher  may  inspire  his  pupils,  or  a  philosopher 
his  disciples,  so  that  they  remain  themselves  and 
yet  are  lifted  to  an  insight  to  which  of  themselves 
they  would  never  attain.  We  cannot  tell  how  it 
is  done,  but  the  fact  is  familiar.  In  like  manner, 
a  preacher  is  often  spoken  of  as  inspired  when  he 
attains  to  some  special  insight  or  deep  spiritual 
fervor.  And  the  inspiration  may  well  be  real ;  but 
it  does  not  turn  the  man  into  the  passive  instru- 
ment of  a  power  above  him ;  it  rather  lifts  the  man 
himself  to  a  higher  power.  It  is  inspiration,  not 
dictation.  It  is  in  accordance  with  these  analo- 
gies that  we  must  think  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures.  God  did  not  dictate  the  Scriptures, 
he  inspired  them;  and  that  in  such  a  way  that 
the  authors  were  at  once  themselves  and  also  at- 


THE  CHRISTIAN    REVELATION  31 

tained  to  a  higher  insight  than  was  possible  to  their 
unaided  powers. 

But  now  it  will  be  said  that  this  is  very  loose 
indeed.  Such  a  conception  of  inspiration  does  well 
enough  for  vague  popular  speech,  but  it  is  all 
too  uncertain  for  the  source  of  revelation.  This 
demands  something  more  definite  and  objective, 
something  which  can  be  fixed  in  a  scientific 
definition;  and  this  must  finally  be  found  in  the 
notion  of  infallible  dictation. 

Without  doubt  this  notion  of  dictation  is  the 
only  conception  of  inspiration  which  is  perfectly 
clear;  all  others  shade  away  into  indefiniteness 
and  refuse  to  be  fixed  in  a  hard-and-fast  defini- 
tion. But  equally  without  doubt  this  notion  is  ab- 
solutely untenable  when  applied  to  the  received 
canon  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  Let  us 
admit  the  literal  truth  of  the  passages  where  it  is 
said  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  prophets 
or  apostles  and  which  they  were  commanded  to 
write  down,  it  is  still  clear  that  this  is  very  far 
from  establishing  the  dictation  of  all  the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  That  some  prophetic 
vision  came  to  Isaiah  as  the  word  of  the  Lord  may 
well  be  believed ;  but  there  is  no  connection  be- 
tween this  fact  and  the  claim  that  the  books  of 
Chronicles  or  the  books  of  Esther  and  Ruth  were 
written  at  the  dictation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 


32  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

doctrine  of  dictation,  as  held  by  traditional  theo- 
logy, applies  to  the  whole  canon ;  and  this  doctrine 
is  groundless.  The  Scriptures  themselves  make 
and  warrant  no  such  claim.  Nothing  would  reveal 
the  absurdity  more  strikingly  than  the  attempt 
to  conceive  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  real  author 
of  the  various  utterances  of  the  many  speakers 
and  writers.  Speaking  in  their  own  person,  they 
are  intelligible ;  conceived  as  masks  through  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  speaks,  nothing  could  well  be  more 
puzzling  and  unprofitable.  In  the  introduction  to 
the  Gospel  of  Luke  and  to  the  Book  of  Acts,  the 
writer  sets  forth  his  reasons  for  writing  and  his 
acquaintance  with  the  facts,  like  any  other  histor- 
ical writer,  and  he  shows  no  suspicion  of  being  an 
amanuensis  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  To  such  confu- 
sion the  notion  of  dictation  inevitably  leads  us; 
and  when  we  lay  aside  this  notion,  there  is  nothing 
left  but  the  vaguer  yet  more  manageable  notion 
of  inspiration. 

The  traditional  doctrine  of  inspiration,  we  have 
said,  was  not  formed  upon  any  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures themselves,  but  rather  upon  apriori  assump- 
tions as  to  what  inspiration  must  be.  To  this  may 
be  added  sundry  influences  from  non-Christian 
sources.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  had  their  rev- 
elations through  various  oracles ;  and  these  were 
commonly  pathological  performances  in  which  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  33 

oracle  raved  and  babbled  under  the  influence  of 
the  "  divine  afflatus,"  and  supposedly  with  little 
or  no  knowledge  of  what  was  said.  The  words 
spoken  were  words  of  the  god.  This  conception 
was  carried  over  into  Christianity  by  some  of  the 
early  Christian  writers  on  inspiration.  This  view, 
together  with  the  apriori  assumption  referred  to, 
for  a  long  time  shut  up  the  Church  to  the  notion 
of  a  dictated  book,  of  which  the  writers  were  only 
"the  inspired  penmen"  while  God  himself  was 
the  real  author,  no  matter  whose  name  might  ap- 
pear as  the  writer.  The  Helvetic  Formula  pushed 
this  dependence  so  far  as  to  make  words,  letters, 
and  punctuation  marks  alike  inspired  of  God. 

A  very  slight  acquaintance  with  the  text  dis- 
poses of  such  a  doctrine.  If  the  Holy  Spirit  were 
the  sole  author  of  all  the  accounts  we  should 
expect  them  to  agree,  which  of  course  is  not  the 
case.  But  it  may  occur  to  us  that  there  is  an  im- 
portant element  in  inspiration  which  has  not  yet 
been  mentioned,  and  which  is  really  the  essential 
thing.  This  is  infallibility.  Dictation  is  impor- 
tant only  as  securing  infallibility;  and  we  may 
give  it  up,  provided  the  infallibility  is  retained. 
The  psychological  state  of  the  Scripture  writers, 
then,  is  not  a  matter  of  supreme  importance.  They 
may  have  spoken  or  written  in  a  state  of  ecstasy, 
or  they  may  have  received  direct  dictation  from 


34  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  Holy  Spirit,  or  they  may  have  been  left  to 
choose  their  own  thoughts  and  words  according 
to  their  mental  type  and  experience,  subject  of 
course  to  the  ^'supervision"  or  "superintendence" 
of  the  Spirit ;  but  however  this  may  have  been, 
the  product  of  their  inspiration  must  have  been 
infallible  if  we  are  to  have  any  confidence  in  it. 
If  this  be  denied  we  might  as  well  give  up  inspi- 
ration altogether.  Accordingly  we  find,  in  the 
complicated  and  varying  theories  of  inspiration 
which  have  been  held  in  the  Church,  this  notion 
of  infallibility  commonly  underlying  them,  at 
least  for  all  essential  factors  of  revelation.  In 
this  claim  all  church  authorities  have  generally 
agreed.  The  late  Pope  and  the  present  Pope  have 
both  formally  denounced  the  notion  that  there 
can  be  any  error  in  Scripture,  and  Protestant 
leaders  have  generally  done  the  same. 

Abstractly  considered,  this  seems  conclusive. 
A  fallible  guide  would  seem  to  be  none,  or  worse 
than  none.  We  must,  then,  consider  the  supposed 
necessity  of  maintaining  the  infallibility  of  the 
Scriptures. 

If  we  should  discuss  this  question  of  inerrancy 
abstractly,  it  would  be  easy  to  mahe  out  a  strong 
case  for  the  necessity  of  the  doctrine.  We  might 
say  that  the  divine  origin  of  the  Scriptures  im- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  35 

plies  it,  or  that  without  it  we  should  be  all  at 
sea,  and  might  as  well  have  no  revelation.  But 
we  should  be  very  careful  in  pressing  such  reason- 
ing ;  for,  if  sound,  it  can  only  result  in  the  over- 
throw of  all  faith.  It  is  beyond  any  question  that 
we  have  no  inerrant  Scriptures  at  present,  whether 
in  the  original  languages  or  in  the  later  versions. 
Let  any  one  who  insists  on  inerrancy  on  the 
basis  of  such  abstract  reasoning  come  out  of  his 
closet  long  enough  to  consider  the  condition  of 
the  manuscripts,  early  and  late,  and  the  varia- 
tions of  the  versions,  ancient  and  modern;  and 
unless  he  be  given  over  he  will  see  that  strict 
inerrancy  in  any  Scriptures  we  have,  or  ever  can 
have,  is  a  fiction.  If,  again,  he  insist  on  historic 
inerrancy  at  least,  let  him  suspend  his  insistence 
until  he  has  made  the  books  of  Chronicles  and 
the  books  of  Kings  tell  accurately  the  same  story. 
Considerations  of  this  kind  have  led  many  to 
abandon  the  claim  of  inerrancy  in  the  existing 
Scriptures,  and  to  confine  it  to  "some  original 
manuscript."  But  if  inerrancy  is  a  matter  of 
practical  importance,  this  view  leaves  us  with- 
out the  necessary  guidance.  Some  original  man- 
uscript, which  has  vanished  beyond  any  hope  of 
recovery,  was  infallible  ;  but  the  existing  manu- 
scripts and  versions  are  not.  What  gain,  then,  do 
we  get  from  the  vanished  infallibility  ?  We  may 


36  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

possibly  fancy  that  we  have  saved  the  divine 
veracity,  but  for  practical  purposes  we  are  as 
badly  off  as  ever. 

And  even  if  we  had  an  infallible  manuscript, 
which  had  descended  from  the  earliest  time,  of 
how  much  use  would  it  be  to  us  without  certain 
other  infallibilities  which  not  even  the  dullest 
would  venture  to  claim?  If  infallibility  be  neces- 
sary, we  should  need  not  merely  to  reproduce 
ancient  words,  but  ancient  modes  of  thought  and 
feeling  as  well.  Unless  our  translators  did  this, 
we  should  still  be  exposed  to  error.  And  after 
the  ancient  words  had  been  reproduced  in  exact 
modern  equivalents,  they  would  next  need  to  be 
understood.  Even  those  who  have  agreed  in  the 
inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures  have  had  disagree- 
ment enough  in  their  interpretation.  Theology, 
past  and  present,  sufficiently  illustrates  this  fact. 
The  nature  of  language  itself  makes  it  impossi- 
ble that  there  should  be  any  hard-and-fast  objec- 
tive interpretation.  The  necessarily  metaphorical 
nature  of  all  language  applying  to  spiritual  rela- 
tions bars  the  way. 

Thus  the  original  infallibility  with  which  we 
started  disperses  and  loses  itself  in  the  general 
uncertainties  of  translation  and  of  language  itself, 
and  in  the  wranglings  of  theologians.  We  could 
hardly  be  worse  off  with  any  permissible  admis- 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  37 

sion  of  errancy  than  we  actually  have  been  with 
the  stiffest  doctrine  of  inerrancy.  Even  when 
pieced  out  with  the  doctrine  of  an  infallible 
church,  inerrancy  has  not  saved  us  from  divers 
winds  of  doctrine  in  the  infallible  church  itself. 
Maintainers  of  inerrancy,  then,  ought  to  be  put 
under  bonds  to  tell  us,  in  the  face  of  the  unde- 
niable facts  of  biblical  study  and  theological  his- 
tory, what  their  view  has  done  for  us,  or  can  do 
for  us ;  especially  now  that  the  "  original  manu- 
script "  is  lost. 

Well,  then,  we  have  no  revelation ;  and  every 
one  is  free  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  the  Scrip- 
tures !  This  is  a  "  logical  consequence  "  of  admit- 
ting errancy  which  cannot  be  evaded,  and  which, 
when  properly  flourished  before  the  appropriate 
audience,  is  always  effective.  In  reply  we  should 
say  that  this  is  a  piece  of  closet  logic,  a  verbal 
intimidation,  resulting  from  considering  the  sub- 
ject in  an  abstract  and  academic  fashion.  It  is 
the  exact  parallel  of  a  similar  objection  in  the 
theory  of  knowledge.  We  may  ask  if  our  senses 
ever  deceive  us;  and  the  answer  must  be.  Yes. 
And  then  we  may  continue,  with  true  closet  logic : 
Well,  if  our  senses  may  deceive  us,  how  do  we 
know  that  they  do  not  always  deceive  us?  And 
the  answer  must  be  that  we  cannot  tell.  And 
then,   of  course,  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that 


38  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

we  have  no  standard  for  distinguishing  truth 
from  error,  and  that  skepticism  overwhelming  is 
upon  us. 

Now  academically  this  is  all  right.  This  prob- 
lem admits  of  no  abstract  theoretical  solution.  If 
we  stay  in  the  closet  we  can  argue  forever,  and 
draw  the  most  fearful  logical  consequences.  But 
the  problem  solves  itself  in  practice.  We  know 
both  that  the  senses  deceive  us  and  that  they  help 
us  to  most  valuable  knowledge.  We  find  out  that 
they  can  thus  help  us,  not  by  theorizing  about 
them,  but  by  using  them. 

The  application  to  the  case  before  us  is  manifest. 
The  abstract  problem,  how  an  imperfect  record 
can  yet  be  an  authority,  admits  of  no  theoretical 
solution.  Like  the  problem  of  knowledge,  it  must 
be  solved  in  practice.  The  value  of  the  Bible  must 
be  determined,  not  by  abstract  theories  of  what 
it  must  be,  but  rather  by  study  of  what  it  proves 
itself  to  be  in  the  religious  life  of  the  world.  And 
tested  in  this  way,  nothing  is  clearer  than  its 
supreme  significance.  Whatever  spots  we  find  on 
it,  it  still  remains  the  sun. 

And  thus  it  appears  how  barren  and  practi- 
cally irrelevant  is  the  abstract  question  as  to  the 
inerrancy  of  the  Bible.  As  already  said,  if  the 
doctrine  is  important  we  are  in  a  bad  way,  be- 
cause we  have  no  inerrant  Bible  at  present.  If  we 


THE   CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  39 

grant  the  doctrine,  we  can  make  nothing  of  it; 
and  we  are  as  badly  off  with  it  as  without  it.  But 
these  manifest  and  palpable  facts  are  hidden  from 
us  through  the  deceit  of  closet  discussion,  whereby 
we  attempt  to  decide  what  must  be,  instead  of  in- 
quiring what  is.  The  doctrine  is  really  of  no  practi- 
cal interest.  It  owes  its  supposed  importance  to  an 
abstract  and  academic  treatment,  which  overlooks 
the  concrete  facts  of  the  case  and  confuses  itself 
with  drawing  fictitious  "logical  consequences." 
We  meet  all  such  difficulties  by  coming  out  of 
the  closet  and  looking  at  the  concrete  facts.  And 
then  many  a  thing  which  may  be  difficult  in  the- 
ory is  found  perfectly  simple  in  practice.  Plato 
expounded  the  abstract  impossibility  of  motion ; 
and  Diogenes  refuted  him  by  walking  up  and 
down  before  him.  Concrete  matters  must  be  con- 
cretely tested ;  and  abstract  objections  may  often 
be  removed  by  walking. 

These  misconceptions  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
abstract  and  verbal  discussions  thence  resulting, 
have  greatly  tended  to  obscure  the  meaning  and 
to  hinder  the  acceptance  of  the  divine  revela- 
tion. We  have  supposed  ourselves  bound  to 
maintain  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible,  to  find  a 
revelation  in  every  detail,  and  to  defend  the 
divineness  of  all  that  is  attributed  to  God.  In 


40  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

truth,  the  revelation  consists  in  what  we  have 
learned  concerning  God,  his  character,  and  his 
purposes ;  and  the  revelation  is  mainly  made  by 
a  great  historical  movement.  Of  this  movement 
the  Bible  is  at  once  the  product  and  the  histori- 
cal and  literary  record.  The  truth  of  the  revela- 
tion depends  on  the  general  truth  of  the  history, 
and  not  at  all  on  the  infallibility  of  the  record. 
But  we  identify  the  record  and  the  revelation, 
and  make  ourselves  additional  difficulties  by  a 
hard-and-fast  theory  of  our  own  invention  con- 
cerning the  inspiration  of  the  record.  In  this  way 
the  Bible  itself  has  often  been  made  an  obstacle 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  revelation.  This  is  espe- 
cially the  case  when  ignorant  ark-savers,  without 
suspicion  that  the  Bible  is  a  literature  and  a 
library,  and  having  never  so  much  as  heard  of 
the  history  of  the  canon,  begin  to  flourish  such 
phrases  as  the  "  Word  of  God,"  as  if  all  questions 
were  settled  thereby.  What  such  persons  believe 
about  the  Bible  amounts  to  as  little  as  what 
Brother  Jasper  believed  about  astronomy.  From 
the  same  confusion  of  the  record  and  the  revela- 
tion even  scholars  have  often  lost  all  sense  of 
perspective  and  of  relative  values,  and  often 
have  missed  the  good  news  of  God  altogether  in 
disputes  about  dates,  authorship,  and  swarms  of 
insignificant  details ;  so  that  we  cannot  see  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  41 

great  Christian  facts  from  being  taken  up  with 
the  question  whether  Moses  wrote  the  account  of 
his  own  death,  or  whether  the  dead  man  really 
did  come  to  life  when  his  corpse  touched  the 
bones  of  the  Prophet  Elisha,  or  whether  the  lost 
axe  really  did  swim  when  the  prophet  threw  a 
stick  into  the  water.  And  when  we  discuss  the 
evidences  of  revelation  we  proceed  in  an  abstract 
and  ineffective  way.  We  begin  with  a  scholastic 
discussion  of  miracles  and  prophecy,  and  seek 
to  establish  the  truth  of  revelation  by  these  ab- 
stract considerations. 

Now,  this  is  inverted  in  every  way,  and  we 
need  to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance. 
We  must  see  that  the  revelation  consists  essen- 
tially in  the  new  ideas  concerning  God  and  his 
will  for  men,  and  that  all  else  —  the  history  and 
the  writing  —  are  but  means  of  setting  forth  and 
preserving  these  ideas.  The  Church  was  Chris- 
tian long  before  it  had  the  Bible,  as  the  Christian 
ideas  long  preceded  the  completion  of  the  biblical 
canon.  The  Church  is  Christian  because  of  the 
effective  presence  of  these  ideas,  not  because  of 
its  doctrine  of  Scripture.  And  we  must  also  see 
that  any  fruitful  and  convincing  discussion  of 
revelation  for  us  must  proceed  from  its  funda- 
mental ideas,  and  from  its  actual  presence  and 
power  in  the  world.  Miracle  and  prophecy  can 


42  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

never  furnish  a  satisfactory  starting-point  now- 
adays for  such  a  discussion.  These  things  are  too 
far  away  to  affect  us.  Even  when  we  think  we 
believe  them,  we  at  once  perceive  that  we  do  so 
only  because  of  their  connection  with  a  great 
historical  order  now  existing.  If  Christianity 
were  not  a  world-power,  a  great  spiritual  force 
here  and  now,  its  origin  would  be  a  matter  of 
profound  indifference,  and  nothing  that  hap- 
pened thousands  of  years  ago  would  ever  make 
it  credible  to  us.  We  should  not  even  take  the 
trouble  to  deny  it;  we  should  ignore  it.  But 
when  we  find  it  to  be  such  a  power ;  when  we 
trace  its  progress,  like  a  mighty  gulf-stream, 
through  the  ocean  of  human  history ;  when  we 
compare  its  literature  with  that  of  other  religious 
systems,  —  then  we  have  a  great  historical  and 
psychological  problem  for  solution,  and  we  find 
no  adequate  solution  except  in  the  insight  that 
God  has  been  revealing  himself  and  establishing 
a  divine  kingdom  in  the  earth.  The  present  fact 
accords  with  the  ancient  history,  and  the  ancient 
history  throws  light  upon  the  present  fact.  It  is 
their  harmony  and  reciprocal  implication,  and  the 
moral  and  spiritual  grandeur  of  the  emerging  sys- 
tem, upon  which  our  conviction  finally  rests.  In 
this  large  way  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  and  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  must   be  discussed,  if 


THE  CHRISTIAN    REVELATION  43 

any  valuable  result  is  to  be  reached.  We  must 
pass  from  abstract  and  scholastic  discussions  of 
a  book  to  the  concrete  discussion  of  the  Christian 
history  and  outcome. 

Into  such  a  discussion  the  question  of  biblical 
inerrancy  need  not  enter  at  all.  We  need  only 
consider  the  general  truthfulness  of  the  record. 
Moreover,  the  movement  is  to  be  studied  as  a 
whole;  not  only  in  its  crude  beginnings,  but  also 
in  its  outcome.  The  significance  of  the  early 
stages  of  the  revealing  movement  is  not  to  be 
discerned  by  any  abstract  study  of  them  or  of 
their  supernatural  attendants,  but  rather  by  what 
has  historically  come  out  of  them.  Taken  by 
themselves,  they  are  crude  enough.  Taken  ab- 
stractly, they  are  easily  made  to  seem  absurd. 
Taken  without  reference  to  what  has  grown  out 
of  them,  they  appear  worthless.  But  taken  his- 
torically, and  in  connection  with  the  system  of 
which  they  are  a  part,  they  are  seen  in  their  deep 
significance. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  logical  delusion  at  this 
point  on  the  part  of  both  radicals  and  conserva- 
tives. On  the  one  hand,  we  often  fancy  that  the 
inerrancy  of  the  Bible  is  the  great  affirmation  of 
Christianity;  and,  on  the  other,  we  fancy  that  if 
we  show  errors  of  any  kind,  we  have  overthrown 
Christianity.   In  both  cases  we  blunder.    Chris- 


44  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

tianity  does  not  affirm  an  infallible  Bible,  but  a 
self-revealing  God.  It  holds  that  God  was  in  the 
historical  movement  out  of  which  the  Bible  came, 
and  in  it  in  such  a  way  that  out  of  it  we  have 
won  a  supremely  valuable  knowledge  of  God. 
Whatever  else  was  or  was  not  there,  God  was 
there,  guiding  the  movement  for  his  own  self- 
revelation.  This  is  the  true  and  only  Christian 
faith  in  this  matter.  And  this  faith  is  not  affected 
by  the  discovery  of  error  and  legend  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. If  we  admit  their  existence,  we  also  have 
to  admit  that  the  great,  fruitful,  living,  and  life- 
giving  ideas  concerning  God  and  his  purposes 
have  come  to  us  along-  this  historical  line.  The 
spots  on  the  sun  have  not  hindered  its  shining. 
However  we  insist  on  the  presence  of  mythical 
and  unhistorical  matter  in  the  Bible,  it  has  not 
prevented  God's  highest  revelation  of  himself. 
This  is  the  treasure  which  the  vessel  of  Scripture, 
however  earthen,  demonstrably  contains.  What 
the  Christian  thinker  should  maintain  is  the 
divine  presence  and  guidance  in  the  revealing 
movement  as  a  whole.  He  need  not  concern  him- 
self about  details,  whether  for  better  or  for  worse. 
All  we  can  insist  upon  is,  that  the  error,  the 
legend,  the  myth,  if  there  be  such,  shall  not  ob- 
scure the  purpose  of  the  whole  —  the  revelation 
of  God.  And  the  objector  also,  if  he  wishes  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  45 

say  anything  to  the  purpose,  should  fix  his  atten- 
tion on  the  central  ideas,  and  not  on  details.  The 
idea  of  an  historical  movement  for  the  self-reve- 
lation of  God  is  the  great  supernatural  factor  in 
the  case,  and  this  is  not  disposed  of  by  any  criti- 
cism of  particulars.  The  essential  Christian  thought 
is  of  a  world  with  God  in  it,  of  humanity  with 
God  in  it,  of  history  with  God  in  it,  of  a  great 
world  movement  from  God  through  humanity  to 
God  again,  where  God  is  all  and  in  all.  In  the 
presence  of  a  great  thought  like  this,  it  seems 
little  less  than  intellectual  indecency  to  make  an 
issue  over  the  speaking  ass,  or  the  talking  ser- 
pent, or  the  rib  that  was  made  into  a  woman, 
whether  to  affirm  or  to  deny. 

By  thus  separating  the  religious  system  of 
ideas  from  questions  of  date,  authorship,  and 
questions  of  textual  record,  we  may  remain  Chris- 
tians in  spite  of  the  higher  critics.  Some  of  the 
critics  have  done  wild  work,  and  criticism  has  some- 
times run  to  leaves  without  bearing  any  valuable 
fruit.  The  polychrome  edition  of  the  Bible,  for  in- 
stance, its  minute  partition  of  the  text  and  even  of 
texts,  shows  a  faith  beyond  anything  in  Israel.  Any 
one  with  a  sense  of  logical  responsibility  and  with 
a  knowledge  of  the  Umitations  of  the  evidence  in 
the  case  knows  that  this  pretended  accuracy  is  a 
vagary  of  the  imagination.  But  the  general  results 


46  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  critical  study  have  done  only  good  and  not  harm. 
It  is  no  longer  permitted  to  teach  that  the  Bible 
was  infallibly  dictated,  or  that  the  several  works 
were  written  down  once  for  all  by  the  men  whose 
names  they  bear,  and  were  never  revised  after- 
wards ;  but  the  Bible  is  no  less  profitable  as  reve- 
lation of  God  than  before.  Only  now,  instead  of 
a  simple  dictation  or  single  composition,  we  have 
an  historical  process,  and  the  complex  religious 
thought  and  consciousness  of  the  ancient  Church. 
But  now  it  will  be  asked  again.  How  can  a 
book  containino;  error  be  trusted  at  all?  This  is 
that  academic  difficulty  which  arises  from  a  closet 
discussion  of  the  subject.  We  have  already  re- 
ferred to  it  in  treating  of  the  infallibility  of  the 
Bible.  We  recur  to  it  again  in  the  hope  that  we 
may  now  be  better  able  to  discern  its  purely  ver- 
bal and  scholastic  character.  The  same  question 
may  be  asked  concerning  the  use  of  our  faculties, 
or  our  trust  in  any  evidence  or  testimony.  All  of 
these  things  are  affected  with  fallibility,  and  if 
we  should  attempt  to  find  an  abstract  standard 
which  should  warrant  our  trust  in  our  faculties  or 
in  one  another,  we  should  only  land  ourselves  in 
universal  skepticism.  But  when,  instead  of  theo- 
rizing about  our  faculties,  we  use  them,  we  get 
on  very  comfortably.  The  problem  which  is  in- 
soluble in  theory,  solves  itself  in  practice. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  47 

In  fact,  the  general  problem  of  the  criterion  of 
knowledge,  in  whatever  field,  is  practical  rather 
than  speculative.  Academic  discussion  is  futile 
and  barren.  In  both  religion  and  philosophy  there 
has  been  a  deal  of  abstract  theorizing*  about  the 
ultimate  standard  of  truth  or  authority,  as  if  there 
were  some  simple  standard  which,  by  external 
application,  would  reveal  the  truth.  But  there  is 
no  such  standard.  The  mind  itself,  alert  and 
critical,  and  with  all  its  furniture  of  experienced 
life,  is  the  only  standard,  and  this  can  never  be 
brought  into  any  single  and  compendious  expres- 
sion. The  mind  has  no  standard  of  certainty,  but 
it  is  certain  about  various  thins"s.  Practical  cer- 
tainty  is  all  we  can  hope  for  in  concrete  matters ; 
and  this  is  born,  not  of  closet  speculation,  but  of 
actual  contact  with  reality.  Concerning  this  cer- 
tainty we  can  always  raise  formal  doubts  and 
cavils;  but  they  disappear  in  practice.  And  any 
one  who  will  use  the  Scriptures  in  this  practical 
way,  and  with  the  aim  of  learning  how  to  think 
about  God  and  his  relations  to  us  and  his  purposes 
concerning  us,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  discern- 
ing their  great  religious  value,  however  much 
of  mythical  and  unhistorical  matter  they  may  be 
thought  to  contain. 

This  insight  into  the  practical  nature  of 
certainty  is  becoming  general  in  the  speculative 


48  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

world,  and  marks  a  very  important  step  forward. 
The  professional  skeptic  finds  his  occupation 
going,  if  not  gone;  for  his  objections  have  com- 
monly been  of  the  abstract,  academic  type,  and 
these  are  now  seen  in  their  perennial  barrenness 
and  fatuity.  It  will  be  a  great  gain  when  the  same 
insight  becomes  general  in  the  religious  world. 
The  search  for  this  abstract,  infallible  standard, 
and  the  claim  to  possess  it,  have  caused,  and  still 
cause,  no  little  confusion.  That  there  is  no  such 
thing  is  manifest,  and  that  it  would  harm  rather 
than  help,  if  we  had  it,  is  equally  clear.  A  stand- 
ard which  left  no  room  for  choice,  for  love  and 
loyalty,  would  defeat  the  moral  ends  of  life.  The 
heart  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  accept- 
ance of  the  multiplication-table,  and  no  spiritual 
truth  would  have  any  value  which  could  be  thus 
accepted. 

Parallel  to  this  question  of  a  standard,  and 
partly  coincident  with  it,  is  the  question  of  author- 
ity in  religion.  Abstractly  considered,  it  seems 
evident  that  without  some  final  authority  we  must 
be  all  at  sea.  Practically  considered,  it  is  equally 
plain  that  the  mass  of  men  must  live  by  author- 
ity in  religion,  as  in  everything  else.  The  great 
majority  of  unbelievers  as  well  as  of  believers 
are  such  by  hearsay  and  authority,  and  not  by 
any  real  insight  or  understanding.  The  form  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  49 

life  and  its  development  make  this  necessary. 
Children,  of  course,  cannot  think  for  themselves; 
and  from  the  lack  of  time  and  faculty  the  case 
is  much  the  same  with  most  men.  Authority, 
imitation,  and  social  contagion  are  the  great 
sources  of  actual  belief.  These  general  facts 
make  confusion  possible;  and  the  possibility  has 
been  abundantly  realized.  Of  course  no  one  im- 
agines that  authority  makes  anything  true ;  but 
it  is  not  an  irrational  supposition  that  authority 
can  declare  a  thing  to  be  true,  so  that  because 
of  our  faith  in  the  authority  we  can  accept  the 
thing  declared,  even  when  we  do  not  clearly  see 
the  reasons  for  ourselves.  In  such  cases  authority 
is  only  a  means  for  giving  ignorance  the  benefit 
of  knowledge,  which  it  could  not  reach  or  hold 
of  itself. 

But  when  we  come  to  apply  these  consider- 
ations to  religion,  confusion  sets  in  again.  Some 
will  have  it  that  the  Church  is  the  seat  of  author- 
ity; others  find  it  in  the  Scriptures,  and  still 
others  find  it  in  reason  and  conscience.  Abstractly 
considered,  quite  an  argument  could  be  made  for 
each  of  these  positions.  Has  not  the  Church,  it 
might  be  asked,  historically  been  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth  ?  Could  Christian  truth  itself 
long  survive  the  decay  of  the  institution  ?  But 
equally  it  might  be  pointed  out  that  without  the 


50  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

constant  appeal  and  return  to  the  Scriptures  the 
Church  itself  is  sure  to  go  astray ;  and  much 
historical  evidence  could  be  adduced  in  support 
of  this  claim. 

Finally,  it  might  be  urged  that  reason  and 
conscience  are  the  final  court  of  appeal;  and 
much  might  be  said  to  prove  it.  Martineau  wrote 
a  large  volume,  the  weakest  of  all  his  works,  in 
defense  of  this  view.  But  all  of  these  positions  are 
abstract  and  partial.  They  are  cases  of  the  fallacy 
of  "either,  or,"  whereas  the  truth  is  "both,  and." 
Practically,  there  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  each 
of  these  views;  but  practically,  again,  the  whole 
truth  is  found  only  in  all  three  taken  together. 
The  stiffest  doctrine  of  Scripture  inerrancy  has 
not  prevented  warring  interpretations ;  and  those 
who  would  place  the  seat  of  authority  in  reason 
and  conscience  are  forced  to  admit  that  outside 
illumination  may  do  much  for  both.  In  mathe- 
matics the  final  seat  of  authority  for  each  learner 
is  most  certainly  in  his  reason;  and  yet  without 
the  teacher,  this  reason,  which  testeth  aU  things, 
would  not  get  far  in  most  cases.  Much  more  is 
this  true  in  religion.  Sabatier  has  written  a  very 
able  work  on  "Religions  of  Authority,"  which 
religions  are  contrasted,  to  their  discredit,  with 
the  "religion  of  the  Spirit";  but  in  his  zeal 
against  authority,  Sabatier  fails  to  notice  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  61 

historically  authority  has  been  and  is  a  very  neces- 
sary fact  in  religious  development. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  plain 
historically  that  book  and  church  have  had  to 
yield  again  and  again  to  the  growing  spiritual 
insight  of  the  religious  community.  The  stoutest 
verbalist  and  ecclesiastic  to-day  would  not  toler- 
ate things  on  which  once  they  vehemently  in- 
sisted, but  which  have  been  outgrown,  although 
the  texts  once  relied  on  still  exist.  "If  a  man 
abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  is 
withered;  and  men  gather  them,  and  cast  them 
into  the  fire,  and  they  are  burned."  This  was 
long  the  standard  text  on  the  manner  of  dealing 
with  heretics,  but  it  has  long  since  gone  out  of  com- 
mission. "Compel  them  to  come  in"  is  another 
text  that  did  great  service  in  the  past,  but  has 
been  humanized  in  modern  times.  Back  in  the 
fifteenth  century  there  was  a  great  controversy 
whether  the  blood  of  Christ  that  was  shed  on  the 
cross  lost  its  hypostatic  union  with  the  Divine 
Logos  and  its  world-saving  quality  while  it  lay 
on  the  ground  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  a 
great  debate  was  held  at  Rome  for  the  decision 
of  the  question.  Such  a  controversy  is  unthink- 
able to-day,  even  in  the  most  orthodox  circles. 
All  interpretations  of  words  must  be  functions 
of  the  interpreters,  as  well  as  of  dictionaries  and 


52  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

grammars.  When  Caliban  studies  natural  the- 
ology he  finds  Setebos,  who  is  simply  Caliban 
enlarged.  When  Caliban  interprets  Scripture 
he  does  the  same  thing.  Plainly,  no  mechanical 
religious  standards  can  escape  appealing  to  the 
complex  life  of  the  religious  community  as  the 
real  interpreter  and  judge  of  the  standards  them- 
selves, and  of  their  permissible  meaning  and 
application.  Apart  from  this,  the  old  gibe  is 
literally  true  of  the  Bible :  — 

This  is  the  book  where  each  his  doctrine  seeks, 
And  this  the  book  where  each  his  doctrine  finds. 

Of  course,  if  one  takes  a  mechanical  view  of 
salvation,  and  supposes  that  our  safety  depends 
on  some  accuracy  of  ritual,  or  some  exact  ortho- 
doxy of  belief,  such  a  person  needs  an  absolute 
standard  or  authority,  in  order  to  make  sure  that 
no  mistake  has  been  made  and  the  requirement 
punctually  fulfilled.  Such  notions  obtain  in  many 
non-Christian  religions,  and  they  are  by  no  means 
unknown  in  Christian  history  ;  but  they  are  non- 
existent for  one  who  has  reached  a  moral  and 
spiritual  conception  of  Christianity. 

In  all  this  polemical  discussion  of  the  Bible, 
one  commonly  finds  on  both  sides  oversight  of 
the  fact  that  the  great  significance  of  the  Bible 
is  to  help  men  to  God.  This  is  its  religious  use 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  53 

and  tins  is  the  main  thing  with  the  majority  of 
Christians.  It  is  their  book  of  religion.  The  ques- 
tions of  criticism  have  no  existence  for  them ; 
but  they  read,  —  "  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd  ;  I 
shall  not  want."  "  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength, 
a  very  present  help  in  trouble."  "  This  is  a  faith- 
ful saying  .  .  .  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners."  "  For  we  know  if  the 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  be  dissolved,  we 
have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  "  Let  not  your 
heart  be  troubled  ...  In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions  ...  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you."  On  passages  like  these  the  Christian  world 
has  lived,  and  in  the  strength  of  them  a  multitude 
of  saints  have  died.  They  knew  nothing  of  criti- 
cism, higher  or  lower;  but  they  found  God  in  the 
Bible,  and  God  found  them  in  the  Bible,  and 
they  knew  whom  they  had  believed.  No  one  is 
fit  to  give  an  opinion  on  the  value  of  the  Scrip- 
tures who  overlooks  this  religious  use  of  them, 
and  the  fact  that  by  this  use  the  great  majority 
of  God's  saints  have  been  nourished  and  are  still 
nourished.  It  is  to  explain  this  fact  that  devout 
scholars  have  long  spoken  of  the  testimonium 
sjnritus  sancti  as  the  great  warrant  of  Scripture. 
A  book  that  did  not  find  us,  to  use  the  expres- 
sion of  Coleridge,  would  not  long  command  our 


54  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

attention  or  assent ;  but  a  book  that  does  find 
us  in  the  deepest  places  and  springs  of  life  will 
always  command  the  allegiance  of  those  who 
seek  to  live  in  the  spirit.  No  errors  of  science 
or  history  will  diminish  its  religious  value  for 
the  devout  and  religious  heart.  Of  course,  we 
all  understand  the  moral  imperfection  of  the 
Old  Testament.  A  great  many  things  jar  on  us 
as  falling  short  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  for 
instance,  the  imprecatory  psalms.  And  yet  our 
fundamental  human  needs  and  religious  aspira- 
tions often  find  perfect  and  permanent  expression 
in  the  words  of  prophet  and  psalmist,  so  that  we 
turn  to  those  words  as  humanity's  classical  reli- 
gious utterance,  and  as  being  just  as  fresh  and 
living  to-day  as  when  they  were  uttered  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  ago.  "  The  Lord  is  my  shep- 
herd "  ;  "  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength  ;  "  Bless 
the  Lord,  0  my  soul  "  ;  "  Unto  thee,  0  Lord,  will 
I  lift  up  my  soul  "  ;  "  The  Lord  is  my  Light  "  ;  — 
these  are  specimens  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  re- 
ligious book,  and  as  expressing  humanity's  search 
after  God  in  all  its  perennial  moods  and  phases 
of  triumph  and  depression,  of  joy  and  sorrow 
and  misery.  These  words  come  to  us  across  the 
ages,  and  they  pierce  us  through  and  through 
with  their  insight  into  human  needs  in  all  ages ; 
and  this  gives  them  their  imperishable  vitality. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  55 

The  possibility  of  combining  effective  religious 
teaching  with  error  as  to  matter  of  fact  may 
be  seen  in  the  following  verse  from  Addison's 
hymn :  — 

What  though  in  solemn  silence  all 
Move  round  the  dark  terrestrial  ball  ? 
What  though  no  real  voice  nor  sound 
Amid  the  radiant  orbs  be  found  ? 
In  reason's  ear  they  all  rejoice, 
And  utter  forth  a  glorious  voice  ; 
Forever  singing  as  they  shine 
"  The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine." 

The  false  astronomy  of  the  first  two  lines  does 
not  diminish  the  religious  value  of  the  hymn. 
Had  this  verse  occurred  in  a  psalm,  the  tradition- 
alists would  have  dealt  with  it  after  this  fashion  : 
Some  would  have  maintained  the  geocentric 
theory  as  a  divine  revelation,  and  would  have 
anathematized  all  other  views.  Others,  longing  to 
reconcile  religion  and  science,  would  have  held 
that  the  writer  really  knew  the  true  theory,  as  it 
is  not  to  be  thought  of  that  an  "  inspired  penman  " 
should  be  in  error,  but  that,  though  knowing 
better,  he  described  the  fact  as  it  appears.  Thus 
the  divine  veracity  and  the  infallibility  of  the 
Scripture  writer  would  be  saved.  And  still  others 
might  hold,  on  the  warrant  of  common  sense, 
that  whether  in  the  psalm  or  in  the  hymn,  the 
religious   value   is   independent    of    astronomic 


66  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

theory.  Of  course,  the  traditional  rationalist 
would  see  nothing  but  the  bad  astronomy ;  all 
else  would  fall  upon  the  blind  spot  of  his  intellect. 

In  the  traditional  discussion  of  revelation  the 
antithesis  of  natural  and  supernatural  has  played 
a  great  part,  and  has  been  the  source  of  much  con- 
fusion. This  antithesis  has  played  a  great  part  in 
the  traditional  discussion  of  revelation,  and  has 
been  the  source  of  mucli  confusion.  The  tradition- 
alist has  commonly  charged  those  who  differ  from 
him  with  denying  the  supernatural,  and  with 
attempting  a  purely  naturalistic  interpretation  of 
the  Bible.  With  him  a  variety  of  schemes  pass 
for  "  bald  naturalism."  It  is  well  to  clear  up  our 
thought  on  this  subject. 

Without  doubt  there  has  been  a  deal  of  natu- 
ralism at  one  time  and  another  which  was  "  bald," 
and  even  worse.  Such  is  the  naturalism  which 
assumes  that  there  is  a  blind  and  impersonal  sys- 
tem, called  Nature,  which  does  a  great  variety  of 
unintended  things  on  its  own  account,  so  that 
they  represent  no  divine  thought  or  purpose,  but 
are  simply  by-products  of  the  natural  mechanism. 
In  this  sense  the  natural  excludes  purpose  and 
intelligence  altogether,  and  warrants  the  dislike 
and  fear  with  which  popular  religious  thought 
regards  it.  This  conception  of  the  natural  grows 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  57 

up  spontaneously  in  the  field  of  sense  thought 
which  has  not  been  duly  chastened  by  criticism; 
but  it  is  really  an  idol  of  the  sense  tribe.  Philo- 
sophical criticism  is  rapidly  leading  to  the  insight 
that  this  nature  is  only  a  fiction  of  unenlightened 
thought.  A  painted  devil  may  give  one  a  turn, 
if  supposed  to  be  real ;  but  it  becomes  harmless 
■when  seen  in  its  true  nature.  Critical  thought 
will  not  hear  of  an  independent  or  self-running 
nature  in  any  case.  It  follows,  then,  that  what- 
ever nature  does,  represents  that  which  it  has 
been  determined  to  do  by  a  power  beyond  it. 
And  if  that  power  be  intelligent,  as  the  theist 
believes,  then  nature  is  simply  doing  that  which 
God  wills.  Thus  nature  becomes  simply  the  ex- 
pression of  the  divine  thought;  and  all  the  details 
of  nature's  working  are  as  rooted  in  the  divine 
purpose  as  they  would  be  if  executed  by  imme- 
diate fiat.  And  a  still  deeper  metaphysics  makes 
it  doubtful  if  nature  have  any  proper  energy 
whatever  in  itself,  or  be  anything  more  than 
the  system  of  phenomena  whose  cause  must  be 
sought  beyond  itself.  On  this  view  there  are  two 
distinct  questions  concerning  what  we  call  nature. 
The  first  concerns  the  phenomena  themselves, 
their  nature,  laws,  and  interrelations  in  general. 
The  second  concerns  the  causality  in  which  this 
system  is  founded  or  from  which  it  proceeds.  The 


68  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

first  question  can  be  answered  only  by  inductive 
science ;  the  second  belongs  to  metaphysics. 

Theism  is  the  only  answer  to  the  second 
question.  In  God  all  that  we  mean  by  nature 
lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being.  The  independ- 
ent, self-administering  nature  vanishes ;  and  all 
that  remains  of  nature  is  the  phenomenal  order, 
and  this  has  its  efficient  ground  in  God.  But 
this  order  is  an  important  object  of  study. 
After  we  have  decided  that  the  world  is  God's 
work,  we  have  still  to  learn  what  the  world  is, 
and  how  God  works  in  it;  what  the  laws  are 
according  to  which  he  proceeds,  and  how  events 
are  connected  in  space  and  time.  Without  some 
knowledge  of  this  kind,  the  world  would  be  im- 
penetrable to  our  intelligence ;  indeed,  we  could 
not  live  at  all.  On  this  view,  nature  is  only  a 
general  name  for  the  system  of  phenomena ;  and 
events  are  natural  in  the  form  and  circumstances 
of  their  occurrence,  but  supernatural  in  their 
causality.  The  events  which  arise  in  accordance 
with  the  established  laws  of  the  system  are  natu- 
ral ;  but  the  causality  is  supernatural  throughout. 
The  most  familiar  fact  is  as  supernatural  in  its 
causation  as  any  miracle  would  be.  The  difference 
would  lie  only  in  the  phenomenal  relations. 

With  this  result  we  no  longer  set  up  the 
natural  and  the  supernatural  in  mutual  exclusion. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  59 

A  natural  event  is  one  in  which  we  trace  famil- 
iar laws,  not  one  in  which  there  is  no  divine 
causality  or  purpose.  And  a  supernatural  event 
would  be  one  which,  from  its  form  or  the  circum- 
stances of  its  occurrence,  would  more  or  less 
clearly  indicate  a  divine  presence  and  purpose; 
but  in  its  causality  it  would  be  no  more  truly 
divine  than  any  routine  happening.  In  its  essen- 
tial causality  nothing  whatever  is  explained  by 
"known  natural  laws,"  or  by  "unknown  natural 
laws,"  but  only  by  the  will  and  purpose  of  God. 
The  most  familiar  event  proceeds  as  directly 
from  the  divine  will  as  the  most  extraordinary  and 
miraculous.  The  causality  of  the  natural  is  super- 
natural, that  is,  divine.  The  method  of  the  super- 
natural is  natural,  that  is,  God  proceeds  accord- 
ing to  orderly  methods.  But  whatever  happens,  be 
it  the  maintenance  of  the  familiar  routine  or  mi- 
raculous departure  from  it,  happens  not  of  itself 
or  because  of  some  mechanical  law  or  system, 
but  because  in  the  divine  purpose  and  wisdom 
that  is  the  thing  demanded.  And  in  all  things 
alike  God  is  equally  present  and  equally  near. 

Thus,  in  the  general  field  of  theism,  we  are 
compelled  to  distinguish  the  question  of  causality 
from  the  question  of  method;  and  we  see  that 
neither  question  answers  the  other.  It  is  only 
through  mental  confusion  that  we  can  fancy  that 


60  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  decision  as  to  causality  decides  the  method 
of  procedure,  or  that  the  discovery  of  method 
reveals  the  essential  causality.  Something  of  the 
same  distinction  may  be  made  in  our  study  of 
revelation.  Our  conviction  that  God  is  immanent 
in  the  revealins:  movement  does  not  decide  the 
form  of  the  movement;  and  we  are  left  free  to 
inquire  as  to  this  form,  and  to  see  to  what  extent 
we  can  trace  in  it  the  familiar  laws  of  history  and 
of  the  human  mind.  We  are  all  the  more  free  to 
do  this  from  the  fact  that  the  Scripture  writers 
largely  described  the  facts  from  their  conception 
of  the  divine  causality  rather  than  from  the  phe- 
nomenal standpoint.  It  was  their  habit  to  refer 
events  directly  to  God  without  mention  of  sec- 
ondary or  intermediate  causes  or  natural  laws. 
In  this  they  were  quite  right  as  to  the  causality, 
but  we  get  a  wrong  impression  as  to  the  appear- 
ance of  the  event.  There  was  certainly  no  such 
phenomenal  departure  from  the  familiar  order  of 
law  in  every  case  as  the  language  of  the  report- 
ers would  lead  us,  with  our  different  habit  of 
thought,  to  expect.  If  an  Armada  had  sailed  from 
Tyre  for  a  descent  on  the  coast  of  Palestine  and 
had  been  dispersed  and  sunk  in  a  storm,  a  Jewish 
patriot  would  have  ascribed  the  result  directly  to 
God,  and  in  this  he  might  have  been  right;  but 
if  we  had  been  there  we  should  have  seen  only  a 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  61 

storm.  This  would  not  indeed  disprove  the  divine 
agency,  but  it  would  modify  our  conception  of 
its  form  and  method.  The  causality  would  be 
supernatural,  but  the  method  would  be  natural. 

Without  doubt  this  is  the  case  with  much  of 
the  supernatural  reported  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is 
to  be  understood  from  the  standpoint  of  causality 
and  purpose  rather  than  from  the  standpoint  of 
phenomena.  And  this  is  said,  not  from  any  aver- 
sion to  miracle,  but  as  being  the  conclusion  to 
which  a  study  of  the  reports  themselves  and  of 
the  habits  of  thought  of  the  reporters  naturally 
leads.  And  when  we  come  to  the  distinctly  mirac- 
ulous, to  that  which  breaks  with  the  natural  order 
and  reveals  the  presence  of  a  supernatural  power, 
we  may  still  look  for  some  of  the  familiar  natural 
continuities.  Miracles  which  broke  with  all  law 
would  be  nothing  intelligible.  We  can  under- 
stand miracles  as  signs  whereby  sense-bound 
minds  are  made  aware  of  a  divine  power  and 
purpose  which  they  would  otherwise  miss,  in 
their  subjection  to  the  mechanical  movement  of 
nature ;  but  we  cannot  suppose  them  wrought  at 
random  and  without  any  reference  to  the  ante- 
cedents and  environment.  Thus,  if  we  suppose 
God  should  design  to  make  a  revelation  of 
higher  mathematical  truth,  even  by  way  of  mir- 
acle, it  is  clear  that  the  miracle  would  not  be 


62  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

wrought  among  the  Patagonians  or  Hottentots, 
but  rather  there  where  the  development  of  civil- 
ization and  of  mathematical  knowledge  had  made 
a  place  for  the  reception  of  the  revelation.  Even 
seed  divinely  sown  needs  a  prepared  soil,  if  there 
is  to  be  any  worthy  fruitage  ;  and  thorny  and 
stony  ground  does  not  furnish  such  a  soil. 

Hence,  if  we  admit,  not  only  the  supernatural 
but  also  the  miraculous  element  in  revelation,  it 
is  plain  that  the  revealing  movement  admits  of 
being  studied  from  the  natural  standpoint ;  that 
is,  we  may  seek  to  trace  the  familiar  laws  of  life 
and  thought  and  history  and  human  develop- 
ment in  the  progress  and  unfolding  of  the  move- 
ment. And  such  study,  when  thought  is  clear, 
has  no  tendency  to  cast  doubt  on  the  supernat- 
ural source  of  the  movement.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  lends  an  absorbing  human  and  rational  inter- 
est to  the  problem,  which  is  impossible  when 
the  human  is  paralyzed  by  the  divine,  and  the 
natural  is  replaced  by  unintelligible  arbitrariness. 
Naturalism,  then,  which  displaces  God  and  erects 
impersonal  law  into  a  mechanical  and  self-admin- 
istering system  which  knows  neither  itself  nor  its 
products,  we  cast  out  with  assured  conviction,  and 
that  on  the  authority  of  both  religion  and  philo- 
sophy ;  but  naturalism,  which  attempts  to  trace 
the  continuity  of   law  and  rational  connection 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  63 

through  all  the  works  of  God,  whether  in  nature 
or  revelation,  is  to  be  approved  and  welcomed. 

Such  naturalism  never  gives  a  causal  explana- 
tion, but  it  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes.  Its  nature 
and  value  may  be  seen  from  the  following  illus- 
tration: It  is  very  common  to  say  that  a  man 
is  explained  by  his  time  and  environment.  For 
instance,  Newton  would  have  been  impossible 
among  the  Bushmen.  His  work  demanded  the 
existence  of  civilization  and  the  work  of  previous 
mathematicians.  This  is  undoubted;  and,  in  this 
sense,  Newton  is  explained  by  his  time  and  envi- 
ronment. But  it  would  be  highly  superficial  to 
rest  in  this.  The  time  and  environment  were  the 
same  for  every  mathematician  in  England;  but 
they  were  ineffective  until  combined  with  the 
special  genius  of  Newton;  and  this  is  something 
which  time  and  environment  never  account  for. 
Hence,  in  studying  a  man's  life,  we  certainly 
need  to  consider  his  antecedents  and  surround- 
ings. But  the  man  himself  is  a  factor  apart, 
connected  with  these  things,  but  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  them  or  deduced  from  them.  In 
the  same  way  the  naturalistic  study  of  revelation 
can  show  important  preparations,  historical  con- 
tinuities, pyschological  uniformities,  rational 
harmonies ;  but  we  reach  nothing  final  until  we 
come  to  the  immanent,  self -revealing  God. 


64  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

The  doctrine  of  the  divine  immanence,  which 
is  being  reestablished  in  philosophic  thought 
once  more,  relieves  many  of  the  traditional  diffi- 
culties of  this  discussion.  Our  Western  thought 
has  been  largely  ruled  by  the  deistic  conception  of 
an  absentee  God  and  a  mechanical  universe.  The 
chief  part  of  our  intellectual  puzzles  in  this  field 
are  due  to  this  obsolete  notion.  Religion  is  really 
concerned  only  to  affirm  a  divine  causality  and 
meaning  in  the  world;  and  science  is  really  con- 
cerned only  with  the  method  by  which  that  caus- 
ality proceeds.  These  are  two  separate  questions, 
and  neither  can  conflict  with  the  other.  When 
this  is  better  understood,  the  rehgious  world  will 
lose  its  fear  of  naturalism  and  its  dread  of  law, 
because  of  the  insight  that  God  is  working 
throusfh  the  law  and  the  order  which  he  has 
made.  And  naturalism,  on  the  other  hand,  will 
lose  its  dread  of  the  supernatural,  as  it  will  recog- 
nize that  the  natural  is  only  the  form  under  which 
the  Ever-living,  Ever-acting  God  works  his  will. 

The  difficulties  just  dealt  with  have  a  logical 
and  metaphysical  root.  We  now  come  to  others 
of  a  literary  and  linguistic  character. 

Another  great  hindrance  to  the  understand- 
ing of  revelation  has  been  a  misconception  of  the 
way  in  which  language  is  used.  The  language 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  65 

of  the  Bible  has  been  taken  in  a  hard-and-fast, 
logical  sense,  as  if  it  were  evidence  in  a  court 
of  law,  or  a  theorem  in  geometry,  and  the  most 
grotesque  distortions  have  resulted  in  conse- 
quence. 

We  are  gradually  learning  that  there  is  a  lan- 
guage of  poetry,  of  conscience,  of  emotion,  of 
aspiration,  of  religion,  as  well  as  a  language  of 
the  logical  understanding.  And  the  former  lan- 
guage is  absurd  and  incredible  when  tested  by 
the  canons  of  the  latter.  Such  language  can  be 
understood  only  on  its  own  plane  and  by  the  life 
which  generates  it.  The  difference  might  be  illus- 
trated by  our  speech  concerning  the  national 
flag.  One  viewing  the  flag  as  a  symbol  of  the 
nation  —  its  life,  its  history,  its  aspirations  — 
might  say  a  great  many  things  about  it  which 
would  be  perfectly  true  from  the  standpoint  of 
sentiment  and  patriotic  devotion,  and  perfectly 
absurd  from  the  standpoint  of  sense.  For  sense, 
the  flag  is  simply  a  variously-colored  textile  fabric ; 
but  "  Old  Glory "  is  more  than  a  textile  fabric, 
thouirh  it  needs  life  and  imag-ination  to  see  it. 

Now  this  distinction,  so  important  in  the  living 
use  of  language  and  so  prominent  in  religious 
speech,  has  been  lamentably  ignored  in  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures.  A  mathematician  once  read 
"Paradise  Lost,"  and  reported  that  he  did  not  see 


66  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

that  it  proved  anything.  The  Scriptures  have 
been  studied  in  much  the  same  spirit.  The  ten- 
dency has  been  to  interpret  every  statement  as  a 
statutory  dogma,  often  without  any  reference  to 
the  context,  or  the  mode  of  thought  of  the  time, 
or  the  writer's  purpose.  Of  course,  we  are  all 
familiar  with  the  numberless  petty  sects  based 
on  such  Philistine  interpretation,  but  the  blunder 
has  never  been  lacking  in  the  great  orthodox 
bodies.  The  result  is  as  absurd  as  would  be  pro- 
duced by  a  similar  interpretation  of  our  language 
about  the  national  flag. 

As  an  illustration,  consider  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  by  grace  through  faith.  Every  one,  of 
any  moral  development  whatever,  is  ready  to 
renounce  all  claims  to  merit  before  God  on  the 
ground  of  his  own  good  works,  and  to  affirm 
that,  if  he  have  any  place  in  the  divine  favor, 
it  must  be  based  on  the  undeserved  and  conde- 
scending grace  of  God.  Equally  plain  is  it  that, 
if  we  are  to  be  lifted  out  of  our  low  life  into  the 
life  and  fellowship  of  the  Spirit,  it  must  be,  not 
by  any  mechanical  performance  of  external  rites, 
but  by  faith  and  trust  in  the  grace  which  is 
above  us,  and  in  the  ideal  which  that  grace 
reveals.  However  we  stumble  or  fall,  we  must 
believe  in  that,  and  ever  struggle  toward  it. 
There  is  no  deeper  or  more  vital  truth  in  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  67 

moral  and  religious  life.  But  it  must  be  under- 
stood from  the  side  of  life.  It  must  be  vitally, 
ethically,  spiritually  apprehended.  And  when  this 
is  not  done,  and  this  doctrine  is  turned  into  a 
scheme  of  salvation  on  the  model  of  criminal 
law,  it  loses  its  life-giving  character  altogether, 
and  becomes  incredible  and  pernicious.  Me- 
chanical interpretations  of  the  atonement  have 
often  lent  themselves  to  immoral  conclusions, 
and  nothing  but  a  wholesome  moral  instinct  has 
prevented  it  in  every  case. 

A  history  of  interpretation  and  of  interpre- 
tations would  be  highly  instructive.  From  this 
mechanical  way  of  dealing  with  the  subject  it 
has  often  happened  that  those  most  familiar  with 
the  text  have  made  the  worst  blunders  as  to  the 
meaning.  Out  of  this  confusion  we  are  gradually 
emerging,  by  the  discovery  that  the  Bible  is  not 
merely,  nor  mainly,  a  book  of  dogmas,  but  a 
body  of  religious  literature  also,  which  must  be 
interpreted  by  universal  literary  methods. 

A  further  specification  of  the  same  error  about 
language  is  in  overlooking  the  metaphorical  na- 
ture of  all  language  respecting  invisible  things. 
We  have  no  way  of  expressing  moral  and  spiritual 
truth  except  through  some  figure  borrowed  from 
our  physical  life  and  experience.  But  in  such  cases 
thought  must  be  on  its  guard  against  taking  the 


68  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

metaphor  for  the  thing-,  or  an  exegesis  of  the  met- 
aphor for  an  exegesis  of  the  thing.  From  over- 
sight here  a  large  part  of  traditional  theology  has 
been  little  more  than  an  exegesis  of  misunder- 
stood metaphors.  The  warning  which  Jesus  gave, 
and  which  indeed  lies  on  the  surface,  that  the 
letter  killeth,  and  the  spirit  only  profiteth  and 
giveth  life,  has  been  ignored,  and  history  has  been 
deluged  with  confusion  and  strife  and  bloodshed 
in  consequence.  It  would  lead  to  a  great  clarifica- 
tion of  Christian  thought  if  there  were  a  general 
attempt  to  reduce  the  metaphors  of  Christian 
speech  to  their  net  significance.  We  should  con- 
tinue to  use  them  thereafter,  for  there  is  nothing 
else  to  use ;  but  we  should  be  freed  from  bondage 
to  them,  and  it  might  also  turn  out  that  there  is 
a  choice  in  metaphors.  A  great  many  metaphors 
of  ancient  religious  speech  are  unimpressive  or 
distasteful  to  us  because  the  customs  on  which 
they  rested  have  passed  away,  and  we  need  new 
metaphors  for  the  best  expression  of  our  thought. 
There  are  a  few  persons  who  say  that  they  take 
the  Bible  just  as  it  reads;  but  that  only  means 
that  they  take  their  interpretation  for  the  Bible. 
It  reads  :  "  He  rode  upon  a  cherub,  and  did  fly  ; 
yea,  he  did  fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind."  It 
reads :  "  He  shall  cover  thee  with  his  feathers, 
and  under  his  wings  shalt  thou  trust."  Now  there 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  69 

is  probably  no  one  who  fancies  such  passages  are 
to  be  taken  as  they  read.  Any  one  can  see  that 
such  language  must  be  taken  for  its  meaning,  and 
not  for  what  it  says ;  but  not  every  one  sees  that 
a  great  many  other  readings  are  in  the  same  case. 
Not  every  one  sees  that,  as  soon  as  we  leave  the 
plane  of  the  senses,  every  statement  has  its  ele- 
ment of  "  wings  "  and  "  feathers."  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  hard-and-fast  interpretation  of 
such  language.  What  we  find  in  it  will  depend 
very  much  on  ourselves,  and  on  the  presupposi- 
tions which  we  bring  with  us.  And,  in  general,  the 
progress  of  theology  has  consisted  in  adjusting 
readings  to  those  fundamental  principles  of  good 
sense  and  good  morals  to  which  revelation  must 
conform,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  value  for  us.  These 
adjustments  have  commonly  been  resisted  by  the 
cry  that  the  Word  of  God  was  being  made  of  no 
effect;  but  Christian  thought  will  always  insist 
on  interpreting  the  letter  of  the  Bible  in  accord- 
ance with  God's  spiritual  revelation  of  himself, 
both  in  the  Bible  and  in  the  spiritual  life  of  his 
children.  An  indefinite  amount  of  historical  the- 
ology, for  which  many  texts  could  be  adduced, 
has  drifted  away  forever ;  not  because  we  have 
become  better  grammarians  and  exegetes,  but 
because  it  rested  on  an  obsolete  way  of  thinking 
about  God  and  the  Bible.  In  this  way  the  Spirit 


70  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

leads  us  into  truth.  The  reahzation  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  gives  law  to  the  exegesis  of  the  Book. 

And  if  any  one  should  think  that  this  must 
tend  to  fatal  looseness,  he  may  steady  himself  in 
two  ways :  First,  he  should  remember  that  the 
value  of  the  Scriptures  can  be  determined  only  by 
usinof  them  in  the  earnest  desire  to  know  the  mind 
and  will  of  God.  The  frio-htful  log-ical  conse- 
quences  which  may  be  deduced  from  this  view, 
as  already  pointed  out,  result  entirely  from  viewing 
the  matter  academically  and  abstractly ;  and  sim- 
ilar conclusions  can  be  drawn  from  any  theory  of 
knowledge  whatever.  But  certainty  is  a  practical 
problem,  and  is  to  be  reached  only  in  practice 
and  in  contact  with  reality.  When  the  Scriptures 
are  used  in  this  way,  they  have  always  vindicated 
themselves,  and  they  always  will.  The  only  persons 
who  will  experience  any  sense  of  loss  in  this  view 
are  the  dealers  in  proof-texts  and  detailed  informa- 
tion concerning  the  divine  plans  and  government. 
The  detailed  dogmatic  constructions  of  the  past 
are  no  longer  possible,  and  we  have  to  confine  our- 
selves to  the  more  general  insight  into  what  God  is 
and  what  he  means,  and  to  the  effort  on  our  part 
to  realize  the  divine  kingdom  upon  earth.  For 
this,  we  have  all  the  information  and  inspiration 
needed;  and  this  is  enough. 

And    the  second    steadying   consideration    is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  71 

found  in  a  look  into  history.    There  has  hardly- 
been  a  step  of  progress  —  social,  scientific,  eco- 
nomic, religious — which  has  not  been  resisted  as 
fatal  to  the  claims  of  the  Bible.    Ignorance  in 
high  places  has  often  made  the  Bible  a  menace  to 
humanity,  and  ignorance  in  low  places  has  still 
oftener  made  it  a  nuisance.  This  sort  of  thing  fills 
up  the  pages  of  Buckle  and  Draper  and  Lecky 
and  White.    The  humiliating  history  would  be 
a  profitable  subject  of  reflection  for  any  one  who 
is  inclined  to  resist  any  departure  from  his  view 
as  fatal  to  the  Bible.    Texts  have  been  arrayed 
against  astronomy,  geology,  political  economy, 
philosophy,  geography,  religious  toleration,  anti- 
slavery,   mercy    to    decrepit    old    women  called 
witches,  anatomy,  medicine,  vaccination,    anaes- 
thetics, fanning-mills,  lightning-rods,  life-insur- 
ance, women  speaking  in  church  and  going  to  the 
General  Conference.  All  of  these,  particularly  the 
last,  have  been  declared,  solemnly  and  with  much 
emotion,  to  make  the  Word  of  God  of  none  effect. 
But  all  of  us  have  got  beyond  most  of  these 
things,  and  most  of  us  have  got  beyond  all  of 
them ;  and  we  count  ourselves  Christians  still.  For 
us  the  Word  of  God  is  not  the  text  of  the  Bible, 
but  that  revelation  of  what  God  is  and  what  he 
means,  which  he  has  made   to  us  through   the 
prophets  and  through  his  Son.   The  faith  in  this 


72  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

revelation  has  survived  across  many  changes  of 
view  concerning  the  Bible  itself,  and  may  survive 
many  more. 

Difficulty  in  understanding  revelation  often 
arises  because  of  the  failure  to  note  its  historical 
and  progressive  character.  Being  a  revelation  of 
deed  as  well  as  of  word,  it  necessarily  took  on  an 
historical  form  ;  and  being  a  revelation  to  imma- 
ture men,  it  was  adapted  to  their  immaturity  and 
shared  in  their  imperfection.  Jesus  declares  that 
God  allowed  some  things  which  were  not  good, 
because  of  the  hardness  of  the  people's  heart. 
Paul  speaks  of  the  old  ritual  as  beggarly  begin- 
nings, and  Peter  calls  it  an  intolerable  yoke.  But 
it  was  fitted  to  the  times  of  ignorance  at  which 
God  had  to  wink.  The  morality  was  imperfect, 
as  indeed  it  must  be  so  long  as  men  are  imper- 
fect. In  the  abnormal  relations  of  imperfect  and 
willful  men  the  thing  to  be  done  must  always 
be  unideal  and  can  only  be  a  choice  between 
evils.  But  we  forget  all  this  and  look  for  the 
insight  at  the  beginning  which  came  only  at  the 
end.  For  us,  Christ  completes  the  revelation  and 
is  the  only  standard. 

A  specification  of  the  same  objection  is  the 
difficulty  felt  with  the  character  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament saints,  who,  it  is  thought,  were  altogether 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  73 

unworthy  of  divine  notice,  and  especially  of 
divine  approbation.  Now  there  is  no  doubt  that 
many  of  these  ancient  worthies  do  make  a  sorry 
show  when  judged  by  the  Christian  standard, 
and  that  if  God  were  a  Pharisee  and  careful  of 
his  reputation  with  other  Pharisees  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  them.  But  as  God  was 
revealing  himself  as  a  God  of  grace,  it  seems  to 
be  quite  in  the  order  of  things  that  he  should 
condescend  to  sinners.  Indeed,  there  was  no 
other  class  to  deal  with,  as  there  is  no  other  class 
still.  The  ancient  saints  were  earthly  enough, 
and  so  are  the  modern  saints.  That  God  receiveth 
sinners  is  the  essence  of  the  gospel.  The  fact 
that  he  bore  with  the  imperfect  saints  of  ancient 
times  is  our  great  encouragement  to  hope  that 
he  will  bear  with  the  imperfect  saints  of  to-day. 
A  great  deal  of  mistaken  criticism  has  been 
visited  upon  Old  Testament  morality  from  mis- 
understanding of  this  matter.  Certainly  many  of 
the  savageries  reported  are  very  far  from  ideal; 
and  the  reporters  may  often  have  idealized 
their  origin.  But  in  any  case,  so  long  as  men 
are  imperfect,  their  actual  code,  even  if  directly 
imposed  by  God  himself,  must  share  in  their 
imperfection.  God  might  conceivably  have  made 
men  over  all  at  once  by  fiat;  but  in  that  case 
it   would   have   been  a  magical   rather   than   a 


74  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

moral  revelation.  If  he  is  to  develop  men  into 
riofhteousness,  he  must  regcard  the  laws  and  lim- 
itations  o£  humanity.  God  is  in  all  history, 
ancient  and  modern ;  and  if  the  modern  were 
written  from  the  divine  standpoint,  we  should 
find  as  doubtful  instruments  and  as  unideal 
methods  as  we  find  in  the  ancient.  As  long;  as 
the  hardness  of  the  people's  heart  remains,  there 
will  be  corresponding  imperfection  in  the  code. 
If  God  is  in  history  at  all,  we  must  say  that  he 
wills  both  that  a  great  many  things  bad  in  them- 
selves shall  be  done,  and  that  they  shall  be  done 
away  with.  And  as  for  the  saints,  even  the 
modern  saint  commonly  looks  better  at  a  distance 
than  on  close  inspection.  The  perfect  has  no- 
where come.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  still  an 
important  part  of  the  gospel. 

We  are  probably  better  able  to  understand  this 
matter  to-day  than  ever  before.  The  general  con- 
ception of  evolution  has  made  us  familiar  with  the 
thought  of  slow  progress  in  human  development 
as  well  as  elsewhere.  No  one  would  now  expect 
a  people  to  step  at  once  from  savagery  to  civil- 
ization. No  one  would  now  expect  a  people  to 
change  all  its  customs  and  ideas  and  practical 
modes  of  living  and  acting  in  a  day.  Even  admit- 
ting a  miraculous  factor,  we  should  not  expect 
any  such  magical  departure  from  all  the  psycho- 


THE  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION  75 

logical  and  historical  uniformities  and  continu- 
ities. If,  then,  God  should  begin  with  savages 
for  the  revelation  of  himself,  he  would  descend 
to  their  savage  plane ;  and  his  work  would  have 
to  be  judged  by  its  tendencies  and  outcome  and 
final  form  rather  than  by  its  early  phases.  The 
initial  morality  would  be  savage  ;  the  initial  ideas 
would  be  crude ;  the  initial  saints  would  be  bar- 
barous. The  morality  would  be  slowly  reformed. 
The  myths,  the  legends,  the  dreams,  would  slowly 
be  made  the  vehicles  of  a  higher  truth  and  would 
gradually  fall  away,  or  would  receive  a  higher 
interpretation.  Meanwhile,  the  saints  would  be 
far  from  ideal.  The  tradition,  the  environment, 
the  custom,  would,  to  some  extent,  be  reproduced 
in  them,  with  a  highly  composite  result.  The 
author  of  the  hymn,  "  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I 
glory,"  was  also  prominent  in  the  opium  war  and 
conducted  the  negotiations  that  fastened  the 
opium  traffic  on  China.  In  our  civil  war  there 
were  undoubtedly  good  Christians  on  both  sides 
who  had  the  root  of  the  matter  in  them  ;  but  they 
were  doing  their  best  to  kill  one  another  upon 
occasion.  The  spirit  only  slowly  comes  to  appro- 
priate manifestation;  and  yet  all  the  while  the 
leaven  is  leavening  the  lump — in  which  process, 
moreover,  both  the  life  of  the  leaven  and  the 
lumpishness  of  the  lump  are  fully  manifested. 


76  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

If,  then,  any  one  is  distressed  over  the  crude 
morahty  and  religious  savagery  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  reply  to  him  would  be  twofold.  First, 
the  old  saints  are  no  models  for  us.  The  fact  that 
they  did  certain  things  is  no  warrant  for  our 
doing:  them.  It  is  well  known  to  what  abomina- 
tions  and  cruelties  the  following  of  Old  Testa- 
ment standards  has  led.  For  us  the  spirit  of  Christ 
is  the  only  standard.  But,  secondly,  it  does  not 
follow  from  this  that  God  was  not  in  the  Old 
Testament  history  and  even  in  the  savagery,  not 
of  course  as  approving  it  as  ideal,  but  as  using 
it  because  of  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts.  Either 
that,  or  we  must  withdraw  God  from  our  thought 
of  history  altogether.  A  glance  at  cosmic  ethics 
as  revealed  in  all  history  will  show  it  to  be  quite 
as  grim  as  anything  in  Hebrew  history.  If  these 
savageries  were  presented  to  us  as  divine  ideals 
or  as  abiding  standards  for  our  imitation,  our 
revolt  could  not  be  too  instant  and  uncompromis- 
ing ;  and  in  any  case  it  requires  some  nerve  and 
mental  steadiness  to  contemplate  human  history, 
even  to-day,  without  disquietude.  Only  the  out- 
come can  justify  it. 

But  if  God  be  a  God  of  grace,  and  if  this  rev- 
elation be  so  valuable,  why  was  it  limited  to  so 
few  and  not  rather  conferred  at  once  upon  the 
many?    This  limitation   has  its  mystery,  but  it 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  77 

is  of  a  piece  with  the  divine  method  in  general. 
Mediation  is  the  great  form  of  divine  communi- 
cation. Nev7  truth  is  not  painted  on  the  sky  or 
given  to  all  at  once,  but  it  begins  in  the  thought 
of  one  or  of  a  few,  and  thence  spreads.  This  is 
the  form  in  which  God's  revelation  of  himself  is 
spread  abroad.  The  source  of  our  trouble  with 
this  method  is  a  back-lying  misconception.  It  is 
supposed  that  God  is  made  good  by  his  revela- 
tion, and  that  he  is  not  gracious  toward  those  to 
whom  the  good  news  has  not  come.  This  notion 
has  indeed  been  held,  but  it  is  rapidly  passing 
into  the  class  of  extinct  blasphemies.  God  is  not 
made  good  by  the  revelation ;  he  is  shown  to  be 
good ;  and  the  goodness  and  grace  exist  and 
determine  the  divine  action,  whether  revealed  or 
not.  The  God  who  is  dealing  with  the  human 
race,  in  all  its  branches  and  individuals,  is  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Father  of  whom  every  fatherhood  in  heaven  and 
in  earth  is  named.  We  have  got  as  far  beyond 
the  wholesale  damnation  of  the  heathen  as  we 
have  beyond  the  damnation  of  infants,  whether 
unbaptized  or  not. 

The  revelation  of  God,  I  said,  was  completed 
in  Christ.  This  is  true  only  of  the  objective  mani- 
festation. The  revelation  of  that  revelation  is 
still  going  on.  Christ's  words  were  a  leaven,  a 


78  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

seed;  and  their  meaning  and  transforming  influ- 
ence were  only  slowly  to  be  manifested  in  the 
growing  life  and  insight  of  his  disciples  under 
the  tuition  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  deepest 
sense,  truth  is  revealed  only  when  it  is  under- 
stood; and  in  this  sense  the  revelation  is  still 
going  on.  This  revelation  can  never  be  put  into 
a  book,  so  that  any  one  who  can  read  may  dis- 
cern it ;  it  is  possible  only  to,  and  in,  the  prepared 
heart.  Hence  the  spiritual  meaning  of  Christian- 
ity only  slowly  enters  the  minds  of  men.  The 
truth  is  hidden  by  blindness,  or  is  warped  into 
some  image  of  our  narrowness,  until  the  inner 
illumination  is  reached.  Then  new  truth  breaks 
forth  out  of  the  Word.  The  Lord  looketh  at  the 
heart.  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  These 
words  have  been  with  us  for  ages ;  and  yet  how 
slowly  do  we  free  ourselves  from  the  notion  that 
God  is  a  stickler  for  etiquette,  that  certain  rites 
and  formulas  are  necessary  to  secure  his  favor, 
and  that  only  certain  persons  can  effectually 
administer  or  pronounce  them  —  a  notion  which 
intellectually  and  morally  is  on  the  level  of  sor- 
cery and  incantation. 

But  there  has  been  a  very  great  and  whole- 
some growth  in  Christian  thought  in  recent  years. 
Under  the  guidance  of  the  promised  Spirit,  we 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  79 

are  coming  nearer  to  the  truth  of  God.  The 
elaborate  constructions  and  interpretations  of 
earlier  creeds  are  falling  away  ;  but  in  their  place 
we  have  something  infinitely  better,  —  a  clearer 
apprehension  of  that  Fatherhood  of  which  every 
fatherhood  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named,  of 
God's  moral  purpose  in  the  world,  of  his  up- 
building kingdom,  and  his  nearness  to  every 
faithful  soul.  The  mechanical  and  artificial  con- 
ception of  salvation  also  is  falling  away,  and  we 
are  coming  to  see  that  the  end  of  the  law  is  love ; 
that  is,  the  purpose  of  the  law  is  to  beget  love  in 
the  heart  and  life.  Or  again,  more  concretely 
and  comprehensively,  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law;  that  is,  the  fundamental  aim  is  to  reproduce 
Christ  in  the  disciple.  And  this  insight  is  grad- 
ually transforming  Christian  thought  from  an 
incredible  mechanism  of  words  and  rites  to  a  liv- 
ing and  life-giving  conception  of  what  God  is 
and  what  he  means. 

The  mental  life  tends  to  equilibrium.  The  cus- 
tomary is  clear  and  right ;  and  clear  and  right 
often  because  customary.  With  the  passive  mind 
any  departure  from  the  customary  is  wrong  and 
disastrous.  The  most  beneficent  modifications  of 
opinion  and  custom  have  been  viewed  with  alarm. 
In  like  manner  the  religious  life  adjusts  itself  to 
current  customs  and  conceptions ;  and  any  depart- 


80  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ure  from  them  is  thought  to  be  fatal.  But  expe- 
rience shows  that  life  can  abide  across  many 
changes  of  conception,  and  even  that  the  new 
conception  may  be  more  favorable  to  life  than 
the  old.  And  this  is  true  of  the  newer  views  of 
the  Bible  and  revelation.  Because  of  the  fact 
just  mentioned  these  were  thought  by  many  to 
be  destructive,  but  now  that  we  are  used  to  them 
we  find  them  genuine  aids  to  faith.  There  is 
nothing"  in  them  that  detracts  from  the  value  of 
revelation,  but  rather  much  that  makes  revelation 
more  living  and  effective.  We  have  indeed  no 
longer  a  dictated  and  infallible  book,  but  we 
have  the  record  of  the  self-revelation  of  God  in 
history  and  in  the  thought  and  feeling  of  holy 
men.  With  this  change  the  intellectual  scandals 
and  incredibilities  which  infest  the  former  view 
have  vanished ;  and  in  its  place  has  come  a 
blessed  and  growing  insight  into  what  God  is 
and  what  he  means,  which  is  our  great  and  chief 
source  of  hope  and  inspiration. 

It  is  a  great  change  that  has  taken  place  in 
passing  from  the  old  view  of  the  Bible  to  the 
new,  and  one  readily  understands  that  it  would 
involve  much  friction  and  misunderstanding. 
The  traditional  conception  was  clear,  but  it  has 
been  finally  discredited  by  the  facts,  and  in  its 
place  we  have  something  more  vital  indeed,  but 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  81 

also  more  complex  and  less  easily  formulated. 
We  now  see  that  the  revelation  has  taken  place 
through  a  long  historical  process,  through  God's 
dealings  with  a  chosen  people,  through  the  inspi- 
ration of  holy  men,  through  the  songs  of  psalmists 
and  the  sermons  and  aspiration  of  prophets,  and 
above  all  and  more  especially  through  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Divine  Son.  It  was  nothing  me- 
chanically given  or  rigidly  fixed ;  it  grew  and  it 
grew  out  of  historical  conditions  through  the 
working  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  holy  men.  We  see  that  it  was  conditioned 
by  the  imperfections  of  the  men  to  whom  it  came. 
They  did  not  understand  it.  They  had  no  such 
conception  of  the  divine  meaning  as  we  possess. 
God  is  the  great  exegete,  and  he  makes  clear  now 
what  he  meant  then,  but  the  men  in  the  midst  of 
the  process  had  no  clear  vision.  The  meaning  was 
not  communicated  with  the  exactness  of  a  statute ; 
it  has  become  clear  only  in  the  unfolding  of 
history. 

And  the  facts  that  lead  to  this  view  may  easily 
be  pressed  into  the  service  of  denial.  They  do 
lead  to  the  rejection  of  the  traditional  view,  and 
so  long  as  that  was  thought  to  be  the  only  pos- 
sible view,  they  made  for  the  rejection  of  revela- 
tion altogether.  Some  of  these  facts  have  been 
urged  by  unbelievers  for  centuries  and  have  suf- 


82  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

fered  in  reputation  on  that  account.  Hence  when 
Christian  scholars  began  to  insist  on  them  as 
reasons  for  modifying  the  traditional  view,  they 
were  thought  to  have  gone  over  to  the  "infidels," 
and  were  slandered  and  libeled  accordingly.  All 
this  was  unfortunate,  but  not  unintelligible ;  for 
the  scholars  themselves  were  not  always  happy  in 
their  way  of  putting  things  and  often  made  the 
impression  of  denying  revelation  altogether.  We 
have  had  the  same  experience  in  the  biblical  field 
that  we  have  had  with  evolution.  The  latter  doc- 
trine, now  that  it  is  understood  and  duly  limited 
to  the  facts,  is  seen  to  be  at  least  harmless  and 
even  a  veritable  aid  to  theistic  faith ;  but  the 
doctrine  as  taught  by  a  great  many  of  its  holders 
a  generation  ago  was  pure  materialism  and  athe- 
ism, lofnorant  teachino-  was  met  with  ig-norant 

o  ts  o 

rejection.  More  careful  thought  has  changed  all 
this,  so  that  only  a  belated  mind  would  be  fright- 
ened at  evolution,  or  would  find  in  it  an  all- 
explaining  formula. 

Similar  progress  in  the  biblical  field  is  fast 
enabling  us  to  accept  all  the  facts  which  unbe- 
lievers have  marshaled  against  revelation,  and  is 
turning  them  into  veritable  aids  to  faith.  Unwit- 
tingly unbelievers  have  built  on  the  false  anti- 
thesis of  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  and 
have  fancied  that  when  natural  laws  were  traced 


THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION  83 

in  the  revealing  movement,  all  supernatural  mean- 
ing was  denied.  This  fancy  vanishes  when  we 
rise  to  the  thought  that  the  natural  itself  is  no 
self-running  mechanism,  but  only  the  orderly 
form  of  the  divine  working.  We  may  still  believe 
that  God  spake  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets  and 
by  his  Son,  and  that  still  by  his  Spirit  he  speaks 
unto  the  children  and  leads  them  into  larerer  and 

o 

fuller  truth  and  life. 

A  recent  report  of  a  liberal  religious  gathering 
for  the  discussion  of  the  Bible  sums  up  the  result 
by  saying  that  we  have  discovered  that  the  Bible 
is  no  revelation  by  God  to  man,  but  a  revelation 
by  man  to  man.  Evidently  the  writer  thought 
this  a  complete  and  perfect  disjunction.  If  so,  he 
was  in  the  toils  of  the  false  natural  and  the  false 
supernatural.  God  is  no  longer  so  easily  ruled  out 
by  a  verbal  antithesis.  It  is  still  permitted  to  be- 
lieve in  a  revelation  hy  God  through  man  to  man 
for  the  better  knowledge  of  God  and  the  greater 
blessing  of  men.  In  the  human  world  God  is  less 
a  with-ioorker  than  a  through-wo7'ker,  but  he 
works  nevertheless  to  will  and  to  work  of  his 
good  pleasure. 


II 

THE 
INCARNATION  AND  THE  ATONEMENT 


n 

THE  INCARNATION  AND  THE  ATONEMENT 

In  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthian  church  St. 
Paul  interrupts  his  general  discussion  to  appeal 
for  a  collection  in  behalf  of  the  persecuted  Chris- 
tians of  Judea.  He  first  mentions  the  liberality 
of  the  Macedonian  churches ;  but  with  his  deli- 
cacy of  feeling  and  his  belief  in  freedom  he  de- 
clines to  lay  down  any  rule  for  their  gifts.  The 
Corinthian  brethren  must  decide  for  themselves. 
Still,  in  making  their  decision,  he  would  have 
them  remember  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
his  divine  sacrifice  for  them.  "  For  ye  know  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that,  though  he 
was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor,  that 
ye  through  his  poverty  might  become  rich." 

This  word  of  St.  Paul's  is  very  interesting  for 
both  its  matter  and  its  manner.  Its  matter  is 
essentially  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  of  the 
Divine  Son  for  the  redemption  of  men.  Its  man- 
ner shows  it  to  be  the  faith  of  the  Corinthian 
church  at  that  time.  The  doctrine  is  not  presented 
as  something  new  and  strange,  but  is  assumed  as 
something  known  and  accepted.  "  For  ye  know 


88  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  etc.  Our 
Lord  had  existed  before  his  incarnation.  He  had 
been  rich,  rich  in  the  ineifable  divine  fellowship 
of  the  Father  with  the  Son,  rich  in  the  glory 
which  he'  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was.  As  Paul  declares  in  another  passage,  our 
Lord  had  originally  been  in  the  form  of  God,  yet 
had  not  thought  equality  with  God  a  thing  to  be 
insisted  on,  but  emptied  himself,  taking  the  form 
of  a  bond-servant  and  becoming  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.  And  all  this 
had  been  done  for  our  sakes.  For  us  he  became 
poor.  For  us  he  laid  aside  the  glory  which  he  had 
with  the  Father,  and  became  subject  to  human 
limitations  and  conditions.  And  all  was  done  in 
order  that  by  this  infinite  love  and  sacrifice  we 
might  be  lifted  up  to  God.  For  Paul  at  least, 
and  for  the  early  Christians  also,  our  Lord's  exist- 
ence did  not  begin  in  Judea  or  in  the  stable  at 
Bethlehem. 

This  in  brief  is  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation 
and  atonement  as  continuously  told  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  with  scantiest  variations,  from  its 
beg-inninof  until  now.  It  is  the  essential  doctrine  of 
Christianity  and  the  abiding  source  of  its  power. 
The  doctrine  has  often  been  crudely  held  and 
sometimes  caricatured,  but  Christian  thought  has 
always  returned  to  it  as  its  chief  treasure.  The 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT         89 

present  study  aims  to  rescue  this  doctrine  from 
some  of  the  misunderstandings  that  have  gath- 
ered around  it.  And  first  we  consider  the  incar- 
nation, its  meaning  and  reHgious  significance. 

It  is  very  easy  to  mistake  this  doctrine.  We 
are  often  tempted  to  interpret  it  by  the  imagina- 
tion, and  to  conceive  of  our  Lord  as  spatially 
inclosed  within  the  Hmits  of  a  human  form.  Of 
course  insoluble  difficulties  at  once  arise  as  to 
how  he  could  be  thus  limited  and  confined,  and 
superficial  thought  hastens  to  conclude  that  the 
doctrine  is  absurd  and  the  fact  impossible. 

Again,  when  we  speak  of  our  Lord  as  assum- 
ing our  nature  it  is  easy  to  conceive  that  nature 
as  a  kind  of  something  |  by  itself  which  was 
assumed,  and  then  we  hkve  equally  insoluble 
difficulties  respecting  the  mutual  relation  of  his 
divine  and  his  human  nature,  his  divine  and  his 
human  will.  Here  again  we  have  an  insoluble 
difficulty,  so  long  as  the  problem  is  presented  in 
this  crude  form.  This  impossible  duality  appeared 
at  an  early  date  in  Christian  thought,  and  has 
commonly  been  eliminated  by  being  ignored. 
But  these  difficulties  arise  from  picture  thinking. 
The  unpicturable  problems  of  thought  always 
seem  absurd  when  intrusted  to  the  imagination 
for  solution,  and  we  especially  need  to  be  on  our 
guard  in  this  matter  against  the  misleading  sug- 


90  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

gestions  of  this  faculty.  We  speak  of  ourselves 
as  being  in  the  body,  thus  using  a  spatial  form 
of  speech;  but  we  are  not  in  the  body  as  some- 
thing that  contains  us.  Being  in  the  body  means 
simply  and  only  having  a  type  of  experience 
which  is  physically  conditioned.  Being  in  this 
world  means  only  having  a  certain  type  of  ex- 
perience with  certain  forms  and  laws.  Passing 
out  of  this  world  would  mean  only  passing  from 
one  type  and  condition  of  experience  to  another. 
And  being  a  man,  in  general,  means  only  ex- 
istence under  certain  conditions  and  laws.  And 
if  any  being  should  become  subject  to  the  con- 
ditions, laws,  and  limitations  of  human  life,  that 
being  would  by  that  fact,  and  so  far  forth,  be- 
come, in  the  only  intelligible  sense  of  the  phrase, 
a  human  being.  The  assumption  of  human  na- 
ture has  the  same  meaning.  That  nature  is  not 
a  separate  something  to  be  put  on  like  a  gar- 
ment, or  joined  on  by  some  metaphysical  hyphen. 
It  is  simply  the  general  law  of  humanity,  and 
if  any  being  should  become  subject  to  that  gen- 
eral law  he  would  to  that  extent  assume  human 
nature. 

Hence  by  the  incarnation  of  our  Lord  we  do 
not  mean  that  an  infinite  being  was  compressed 
into  the  limits  of  a  human  form,  or  that  in  some 
picturable  way  he  put  on  our  humanity  like  an 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT         91 

external  covering.  We  mean  rather  that  he  be- 
came subject  to  the  conditions,  laws,  and  limita- 
tions of  human  life,  and  thus  became  in  the 
truest  sense  of  the  word  a  man.  In  this  sense 
he  assumed  our  nature  and  lived  our  life.  Of 
course  no  language  on  such  a  subject  is  to  be 
pressed  beyond  its  general  significance.  It  would 
not  tend  to  edification  to  ask  how  far  such  lim- 
itation goes.  The  question  could  not  be  answered 
in  any  case.  Human  nature  has  higher  ranges  as 
well  as  lower  ones,  and  there  is  no  need  to  think 
of  a  descent  into  imbecility  in  order  to  become 
man.  It  suffices  to  affirm  a  subjection  to  the 
law  of  humanity  such  that  we  may  best  express 
the  fact  by  saying,  "The  Word  became  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  us."  This  in  the  sense  de- 
scribed is  intelligible,  at  least  in  its  meaning, 
and  this  is  enough.  When  we  say  more  than 
this,  we  soon  lose  ourselves  in  words  and  bad 
metaphysics. 

If  now  we  ask  how  this  limitation  is  possible, 
the  answer  must  be  that  we  do  not  know ;  but 
just  as  little  do  we  know  how  it  is  impossible. 
The  progress  of  both  scientific  and  philosophic 
reflection  is  making  the  problems  of  fundamental 
existence  more  and  more  mysterious,  and,  by 
revealing  the  limitations  and  relativity  of  our 
thought,  is  making  thoughtful   men  more  and 


92  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

more  careful  of  pronouncing  on  what  is  possible 
or  impossible  apart  from  the  indications  of  ex- 
perience. This  only  we  can  say  :  There  must  be 
some  community  between  the  divine  and  the 
human  to  make  this  incarnation  possible.  If  these 
were  strictly  opposites,  there  could  be  no  such 
assumption  of  human  nature. 

It  may  also  be  added  that  the  doctrine  is 
equally  impossible  except  as  we  assume  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  Son.  The  formula  of  Chalcedon 
on  this  point  goes  beyond  both  Scripture  and 
reason.  With  this  limitation,  the  net  result  of 
theoloofical  thouo^ht  is  that  while  God  in  his 
absolute  existence  must  always  remain  a  fath- 
omless mystery  to  us,  we  come  nearest  to  the 
truth  when  we  think  of  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Spirit.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity, a  doctrine  mysterious  enough  no  doubt,  yet, 
after  all,  the  line  of  least  resistance,  both  from 
the  biblical  and  from  the  philosophical  stand- 
point. There  is  no  view  that  is  not  attended  with 
great  difficulty  when  we  try  to  think  it  through. 
The  conception  of  a  community  of  persons  in  the 
unity  of  the  divine  existence  is  no  worse  off  in 
this  respect  than  the  conception  of  a  single  and 
lonely  personality  without  the  eternal  fellowship 
which  moral  life  demands.  The  conception  of  the 
lonely  God  with  no  personal  community  in  the 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT    93 

divine  unity  tends  to  run  off  either  into  agnosti- 
cism or  into  some  form  of  pantheism.  Likewise, 
the  net  result  of  Christological  thought  is  that 
Jesus  was  not  merely  the  Son  of  Mary,  but  was 
also  the  Son  of  God,  who  took  upon  him  the  laws 
and  limitations  of  the  human  lot  and  thus  became 
man  in  order  that  he  might  lift  us  to  God.  This 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  which  depends 
for  its  possibility  on  the  other  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity. 

With  this  word  on  the  meaning  and  the  meta- 
physics of  the  doctrine,  let  us  pass  to  consider  its 
religious  and  practical  significance.  For  it  is  not, 
as  many  have  fancied,  a  barren  curiosity  of  theo- 
logical speculation,  if  not  a  grievous  affront  to 
reason ;  it  is  rather  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation, and  the  central  truth  of  Christianity. 

And,  first,  the  incarnation  contains  the  highest 
revelation  of  God.  We  have  no  call  to  consider 
what  might  be  possible  in  worlds  of  which  we 
know  nothing ;  but  in  our  human  world  God's 
highest  manifestation  of  himself  is  made  in  the 
incarnation  and  humiliation  of  his  Son.  The 
revelation  of  power  and  intelligence  is  simple 
enough.  A  certain  measure  of  goodness  also  may 
be  shown  in  the  beneficent  arrangements  of  the 
natural  world ;  but  the  highest  revelation,  the 
revelation  of   moral  love  in  the  highest  degree, 


94  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

lies  far  beyond  all  these  things  and  involves 
another  order  of  manifestation  altosfether.  The- 
ology  has  said  many  things  about  the  divine 
holiness,  but  it  has  been  largely  a  negative  and 
abstract  thing.  God  has  been  conceived  as  gov- 
ernor, as  promulgating  and  executing  righteous 
laws;  and  his  holiness  would  seem  to  be  exhausted 
in  these  things.  The  old  philosophies  hardly  con- 
ceived God  as  ethical  at  all.  They  thought  of 
him  as  a  kind  of  metaphysical  perfection,  and 
were  careful  to  free  him  from  much  thought  or 
care  for  his  creatures  as  beneath  his  notice.  God 
was  made  on  the  Epicurean  model  and  sat  apart, — 

Where  never  falls  the  least  white  star  of  snow, 
Where  never  lowest  sound  of  thunder  rolls, 
Nor  sigh  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to  mar 
His  sacred,  everlasting  calm. 

And  this  philosophy,  which  was  little  but  a 
reflection  of  human  vulgarity  and  selfishness, 
infected  theology.  Again,  a  great  deal  of  our 
theology  was  written  when  men  believed  in  the 
divine  right  and  irresponsibility  of  kings,  and  this 
conception  also  crept  into  and  corrupted  theolo- 
gical thinking,  so  that  God  was  conceived  less  as 
a  truly  moral  being  than  as  a  magnified  and  irre- 
sponsible despot ;  while  the  thought  of  affirming 
that  God  is  under  any  kind  of  moral  obligation 
to  his  creatures  would  have  been  shuddered  at  as 


INCAENATION  AND  ATONEMENT         95 

absurd,  if  not  blasphemous.  The  God  of  that  the- 
ology could  not  have  been  imitated  by  man  with- 
out infamy.  But  Christian  thought  has  moved 
far  away  from  this  notion  ;  and  we  have  come 
to  see  that  God  is  the  most  deeply  obligated  being 
in  existence,  and  moral  principles  are  as  binding 
for  him  as  for  us. 

It  was  an  awful  responsibility  that  was  taken 
when  our  human  race  was  launched  with  its  fear- 
ful possibilities  of  good  and  evil.  God  thereby 
put  himself  under  infinite  obligation  to  care  for 
his  human  family  ;  and  reflections  on  his  position 
as  Creator  and  Ruler  instead  of  removing,  only 
make  this  obligation  more  manifest.  In  particular, 
the  attempt  to  conceive  God  as  love  has  compelled 
the  giving  up  of  those  absolutist  notions  of  divine 
sovereignty  which  formed  the  foundation  of  the- 
ology a  hundred  years  ago.  We  that  are  strong 
ought  to  bear  the  burdens  of  the  weak,  is  seen 
to  be  a  principle  of  universal  application.  A  God 
of  love  must  do  works  of  love  and  be  all  that  love 
implies.  Else  love  is  not  love. 

It  may  be  that  there  was  a  time  when  the 
Jewish  or  even  the  Mohammedan  conception  of 
God  as  simply  Ruler  and  Master  was  more  use- 
ful than  the  Christian  view.  Men  needed  to  learn 
the  lesson  of  law;  and  for  this  stage  of  develop- 
ment possibly  the  conception  of  a  Ruler  issuing 


96  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

commands,  bestowing  rewards,  and  inflicting 
punishment,  was  the  best.  But  there  comes  a 
time  in  moral  development  when  such  a  view  is 
seen  in  its  inadequacy  to  moral  demands;  and 
then  only  the  gospel  of  divine  self-sacrifice  meets 
the  case. 

We  return  now  to  the  claim  that  the  incarna- 
tion is  the  highest  revelation  of  God.  If  God  had 
filled  space  and  time  with  inanimate  worlds,  that 
would  have  revealed  only  power  and  skill.  If  he 
had  filled  the  world  with  pleasure-giving  contriv- 
ances, that  would  have  revealed  benevolence.  If 
he  had  sent  us  prophets  and  teachers  at  no  real 
cost  to  himself,  that  too  would  be  something; 
but  it  would  not  greatly  stir  our  hearts  toward 
God.  Our  love  would  go  out  to  the  prophets  and 
teachers  themselves,  for  the  toil  and  the  pain  would 
fall  on  them.  In  all  beneficence  of  this  sort  God 
would  appear  simply  as  a  rich  man  who  out  of 
his  abundance  scatters  bounty  to  the  needy,  but 
at  no  cost  to  himself.  A  certain  gratitude  would 
indeed  be  possible,  but  along  this  line  God  would 
forever  remain  morally  below  the  moral  heroes 
of  our  race.  Their  gifts  cost.  They  put  them- 
selves and  their  hearts  into  their  work.  They 
attain  to  the  morality  of  self-sacrifice,  and  this  is 
infinitely  beyond  the  morality  of  any  giving  that 
does  not  cost.  And  there  must  ever  be  a  higher 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT    97 

moral  possibility  until  we  reach  the  revelation  of 
God  in  self-sacrifice,  until  God  becomes  the  chief 
of  burden-bearers  and  the  leader  of  all  in  self- 
abnegation.  Then  the  possibilities  of  grace  are 
filled  up.  There  is  nothing  beyond  this.  The 
heroic,  the  self-sacrificing  God  stands  revealed, 
and  God  makes  the  highest  revelation  of  himself. 

And  this  is  made  possible  in  the  incarnation. 
The  Father  loved  the  world  and  gave  his  Son  for 
its  redemption.  The  Son  leaves  the  glory  which 
he  had  with  the  Father  and  enters  into  the  hu- 
man lot  and  becomes  obedient  unto  death  that 
he  may  reveal  the  Father  and  reconcile  men  to 
God.  There  is  great  mystery  here,  but  through 
it  all  we  get  the  impression  of  boundless  love 
issuing  in  mysterious  self-sacrifice,  a  work  of  love 
at  boundless  cost  and  pain  for  the  salvation  of  a 
perverse  and  sinful  world. 

Let  me  put  the  matter  in  another  way.  Sup- 
pose there  were  anywhere  a  human  being  who 
sat  down  to  enjoy  himself  in  the  face  of  the 
world's  misery  and  pain  and  sorrow,  and  looked 
indifferently  on  woe  and  suffering  which  he 
might  relieve,  yet  did  nothing.  What  should  we 
think  of  him?  And  suppose  we  magnify  this 
human  being  until  he  becomes  very  great  and 
wise  and  powerful,  would  not  his  selfishness 
become  all  the  more  horrible?   And  suppose  we 


98  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

enlarge  the  conception  until  the  being  becomes 
all-wise  and  all-powerful,  what  then?  Plainly- 
such  a  being  would  be  the  monster  of  the  moral 
universe.  His  greatness  in  all  other  respects 
would  but  emphasize  the  awful  wickedness  of  his 
selfishness;  and  every  act  of  self-sacrificing  love 
on  the  part  of  men  would  be  his  condemnation. 
Nor  would  it  help  the  matter  if  we  called  this 
being  God.  We  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear 
the  burdens  of  the  weak;  and  the  strongest 
ought  to  be  the  greatest  burden-bearer.  In  the 
moral  world  he  that  is  greatest  of  all  should 
be  the  servant  of  all.  There  is  no  exception  from 
this  rule,  not  even  for  God  himself.  Of  course  it 
is  not  a  matter  of  legal  obligation,  but  of  moral 
goodness.  The  courts  know  nothing  of  this  mat- 
ter, but  love  understands  it.  And  love,  with  all 
that  love  implies,  is  the  highest  and  supreme  duty 
in  a  moral  system.  Moral  goodness,  whether  in 
man  or  God,  does  not  consist  in  doing  things 
beyond  requirement,  but  in  meeting  for  love's 
sake  love's  highest  and  supreme  requirement.  In 
the  highest  sense  there  is  no  such  thing  possible 
as  transcending  requirement;  but  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  divinely  doing  what  divinely  should  be 
done. 

I  know  something  of  the  arguments  whereby 
we  seek  to  keep  our  faith  in  the  divine  goodness 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT    99 

in  the  presence  of  the  world's  pain  and  sorrow 
and  the  manifold  sinister  aspects  of  existence.  I 
do  not  disparage  them;  upon  occasion  I  use 
them;  but  I  always  feel  that  at  best  they  are  only 
palliatives  and  leave  the  great  depths  of  the 
problem  untouched.  There  is  only  one  argument 
that  touches  the  bottom,  and  that  is  Paul's  ques- 
tion :  "  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  de- 
livered him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with 
him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?"  We  look  on 
the  woes  of  the  world.  We  hear  the  whole  crea- 
tion, to  use  Paul's  language,  groaning  and  labor- 
ing in  pain.  We  see  a  few  good  men  vainly 
striving  to  help  the  world  into  life  and  light; 
and  in  our  sense  of  the  awful  mag-nitude  of  the 
problem  and  of  our  inability  to  do  much,  we  cry 
out:  "Where's  God?  How  can  he  bear  this? 
Why  doesn't  he  do  something?"  And  there  is 
but  one  answer  that  satisfies ;  and  that  is  the  In- 
carnation and  the  Cross.  God  could  not  bear  it. 
He  has  done  something.  He  has  done  the  utmost 
compatible  with  moral  wisdom.  He  has  entered 
into  the  fellowship  of  our  suffering  and  misery 
and  at  infinite  cost  has  taken  the  world  upon  his 
heart  that  he  might  raise  it  to  himself.  This  is 
the  highest  revelation.  Of  course  the  order  of 
life  is  still  mysterious.  The  mystery  of  pain  is 
not  yet  solved.  But  in  the  presence  of  this  reve- 


100  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

lation  we  say,  with  the  Apostle:  What  shall 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God?  For  he  that 
spared  not  his  own  Son  for  our  sakes  must  with 
him  give  us  all  things;  so  that  against  all  evils 
and  distresses  whatsoever  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  him  that  hath  loved  us. 

In  such  a  world  as  ours  the  incarnation  contains 
the  highest  revelation  of  God.  It  is  only  a  further 
specification  of  the  same  thought  when  I  add  that 
the  incarnation  is  the  great  source  of  the  power 
of  Christianity.  In  illustration  of  this  claim,  con- 
sider the  following  facts :  The  chief  value  of  the 
Christian  revelation  consists  in  its  being  a  reve- 
lation of  God.  It  is  not  primarily  and  essentially 
a  series  of  verbal  statements  about  God,  but  rather 
a  description  of  what  God  has  done  and  intends 
for  men.  And  the  things  said  and  done  get  their 
chief  significance  from  the  one  who  said  and  did 
them.  Apply  this  to  Christ  himself.  He  went  far 
beyond  Moses  and  the  prophets  in  his  insight 
into  divine  things ;  and  if  he  were  only  a  man  like 
them,  this  would  be  all.  He  would  reveal  God  as 
they  did,  by  word  only;  and  God  himself  would 
not  come  near  enough  for  self-revelation.  But  as- 
sume that  the  incarnation  is  true,  and  the  meaning 
and  power  of  the  whole  are  infinitely  changed. 
Now  we  see  God  in  act,  in  self-revelation.  The 
Divine  Son  is  Hving  the  ideal  human  life  before 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   101 

men  to  reveal  the  heart  of  God,  to  show  us  God's 
thought  of  humanity,  and  the  way  God  would 
have  us  live.  The  Divine  Son  is  bearing  the  sins 
and  sorrows  of  men,  and  is  faithful  unto  death ; 
that  he  may  show  the  love  and  righteousness  of 
God  and  redeem  the  world  unto  himself.  The 
Divine  Son  identifies  himself  with  the  least  of 
these  his  human  brethren,  so  that  whatever  is 
done  to  them  is  done  to  him.  These  things  are  the 
essence  of  Christianity;  but  what  becomes  of  them 
apart  from  the  incarnation?  It  is  one  thing  if 
only  a  Jewish  peasant  uttered  these  words ;  it  is 
quite  another  if  the  speaker  was  the  Lord  of  life 
and  glory.  It  is  one  thing  if  he  who  hung  on  the 
cross  was  only  a  good  young  Jew  of  Nazareth, 
meeting  an  undeserved  and  shameful  death  — 
such  things  have  happened  before  and  since ;  but 
it  is  quite  another  if  he  was  the  Son  of  God  who 
might  have  summoned  twelve  legions  of  angels, 
but  who  for  love's  sake  endured  the  cross  and 
the  contradiction  of  sinners  against  himself.  The 
power  is  gone  if  we  are  dealing  with  Jesus, 
the  carpenter's  son;  for  the  power  depends  not 
on  the  words  and  deeds  themselves,  but  on  him 
who  said  and  did  them.  The  infinite  poverty 
appears  only  as  we  contrast  it  with  the  infinite 
riches ;  and  only  in  this  contrast  is  the  infinite 
love  revealed.  The  life  and  character  of  Jesus 


102  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

acquire  their  supreme  importance  only  through 
the  incarnation. 

The  boldness  of  Christian  thought  at  this 
point  is  a  constant  amazement  and  astonishment. 
Having  ventured  the  great  thought  that  God  is 
love,  it  draws  the  appropriate  conclusion.  What 
shall  a  God  of  love  do  but  works  of  love  ?  And 
where  shall  love  be  found  so  surely  as  there  where 
it  is  most  needed  ?  And  where  is  the  divine  help 
so  much  needed  as  here  in  our  human  lives  ? 
And  so  Christianity  with  sublime  audacity  and 
logic  recalls  God  from  that  far-off  throne  where 
our  vulgar  thought  had  placed  him,  and  finds  him 
present  to  every  soul  and  to  every  need.  In  the 
exercise  of  his  love  God  has  sent  us  rain  from 
heaven  and  fruitful  seasons  and  daily  bread.  But 
this  was  not  enough.  He  also  sent  us  prophets  and 
teachers  to  reveal  his  will.  But  this  also  was 
not  enough.  There  was  a  still  higher  thought, 
and  Christianity  dared  to  think  it.  It  was  that 
God  himself  should  come  into  humanity  for  his 
supreme  self-manifestation  and  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  men.  And  when  the  way  had  been 
prepared,  the  Divine  Son  appears  as  the  Divine 
Redeemer.  There  is  nothing  beyond  this.  The 
possibilities  of  grace  are  exhausted.  God  has 
made  the  highest  moral  revelation  of  himself. 
He  is  seen  at  the  head  of  all  those  who  love,  and 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        103 

for  love's  sake  bear  burdens  and  sacrifice  them- 
selves. 

A  Divine  Person  working^  for  love's  sake  a 
divine  work  for  man's  redemption  is  the  centre  of 
the  Christian  faith  and  the  source  of  its  power. 
Drop  it  out  of  our  teaching,  and,  though  the 
external  form  and  facts  may  remain  unchanged, 
the  life  is  gone  nevertheless.  Men  wonder  that 
Christian  faith  should  cling  so  pertinaciously  to 
this  mysterious  doctrine,  —  mysterious  to  specu- 
lation, but  clear  to  love,  —  but  the  reason  is  that 
it  contains  all  that  is  distinctively  Christian.  The 
self-sacrificing  love  of  God,  and  even  the  ethical 
perfection  and  moral  grandeur  of  God,  are  all 
bound  up  in  this  doctrine.  That  which  stirs  men's 
hearts  has  always  been  the  condescension,  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  cross,  that  is, 
the  self-renunciation,  of  Christ.  "  Herein  is  love, 
not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us, 
and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins."  "He  loved  us  and  gave  himself  for  us." 
Now  the  revelation  of  love  and  righteousness  is 
complete.  And  now  not  merely  gratitude,  but 
adoring  love  and  absolute  self-surrender,  become 
possible  on  our  part.  Now  intellect  and  conscience 
and  heart  and  will  alike  can  come  to  God  and 
say,  "  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done." 
No  wonder  that  Paul  cried  out :  "  God  forbid 


104  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  No  wonder  that  Peter  declares 
that  the  angels  desire  to  look  into  this  grace  o£ 
God.  For  surely  in  earth  or  heaven  there  is  no- 
thing great  or  divine  besides. 

Thus  the  power  of  God's  revelation  has  its 
chief  source  in  the  incarnation.  And  we  may  be 
perfectly  sure  that  no  lower  conception  of  God 
will  permanently  command  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  men.  We  should  not  have  reached  the  concep- 
tion ourselves,  but  now  that  it  has  been  revealed 
to  us  we  see  that  something  of  the  kind  is  a 
moral  necessity  if  we  are  to  think  the  highest 
thought  of  God.  And  there  is  a  peculiar  dialectic 
in  human  thought  whereby  we  are  compelled  to 
think  of  God  as  perfect  or  not  at  all.  An  imper- 
fect God  is  none.  As  soon  as  a  higher  concep- 
tion emerges  we  must  adopt  it  into  our  thought 
of  God,  or  see  our  faith  in  him  fade  out  until 
it  vanishes  altogether.  A  fairly  good  God  we 
cannot  abide.  We  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing 
less  than  the  Supreme  and  Perfect.  Hence  it 
is  that  the  Christian  thought  of  God  wins  its 
way.  It  is  the  only  one  worthy  of  God  or  man. 
So  far  as  speculation  goes,  it  is  as  thinkable  as 
any  other;  and  it  is  the  only  one  that  is  able 
to  inspire  and  perfect  our  human  life.  History  is 
the  sufficient  criticism  of  all  others  and  the  sur- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        105 

vival  of  the  fittest  must  give  the  decision.  Cavils 
can  be  raised  against  anything,  and  anything 
can  be  rejected  if  we  see  fit;  but  history  clearly 
indicates  the  continuity  of  Christian  thought  in 
the  past  and  enables  us  to  forecast  it  for  the 
future. 

Thus  we  have  considered  the  moral  fitness 
and  necessity  and  religious  importance  of  the 
incarnation.  We  now  pass  to  consider  the  atone- 
ment, of  which  the  incarnation  is  the  pre-con- 
dition. 

This  doctrine  also  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  misunderstanding.  The  Church  has  always 
held  that  a  great  work  of  grace  has  been  wrought 
for  the  salvation  of  men.  "God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life."  "The  Son  of  man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  Such 
passages  set  forth  the  work  of  love,  and  because 
of  this  work  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  promised 
unto  all  those  who  turn  to  God  in  repentance 
and  faith.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  philosophy 
of  this  work  we  find  a  vast  deal  of  confusion, 
owing  partly  to  unclearness  of  thought,  and  more 
especially  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of 


106  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

language  and  its  imperfection  as  an  instrument 
of  thought.  We  must  first  bring  tliis  fact  out 
into  clearness. 

Assuming,  then,  the  reality  of  a  divine  work  of 
grace  for  the  blessing  of  men,  the  question  arises, 
How  shall  it  be  expressed  and  made  accessible 
to  our  minds?  A  little  reflection  convinces  us 
that  there  must  always  be  something  transcen- 
dental in  the  divine  life  and  activity  to  which  our 
earth-born  thought,  and  especially  our  "matter- 
moulded"  forms  of  speech  can  only  approximate. 
Thought  itself  has  its  parallax  with  reality  when 
dealing  with  these  high  themes;  and  even  when 
we  are  sure  we  have  the  right  conception,  we  see 
it  vanishing  into  mystery  on  the  farther  side. 
Such  conceptions  are  of  the  nature  of  limits,  to 
which  we  must  approximate  but  cannot  fully 
attain.  Approached  from  the  side  of  experience 
we  see  their  necessity;  but  when  we  take  them 
abstractly  and  absolutely,  and  reflect  upon  them 
in  their  metaphysical  possibility,  we  soon  find 
ourselves  wandering  in  "endless  mazes  lost." 
Conceptions  of  this  type  are  clear  only  from  the 
side  of  the  facts;  if  we  attempt  to  approach  them 
from  the  farther  side,  or  by  the  way  of  deductive 
speculation,  we  only  delude  and  confuse  our- 
selves. 

We  may  illustrate  our  meaning  by  our  con- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       107 

ception  of  the  divine  life  and  consciousness. 
When  we  attempt  to  construe  our  experience  of 
the  inner  and  outer  world,  we  are  shut  up  to  the 
afiirmation  of  an  absolute  and  intelliofent  cause 
as  their  only  adequate  source.  But  as  soon  as  we 
seek  to  construe  this  cause  in  its  inner  life,  we 
find  mysteries  thronging  upon  us.  We  have  to 
affirm  an  unbegun  life  of  tideless  fullness,  of 
unchanging  self-possession,  a  life  transcending 
time,  and  subject  to  no  spatial  limitations.  How 
mysterious  this  is!  Our  own  life  of  spatial  and 
temporal  limitation  furnishes  a  very  inadequate 
key,  and  we  have  to  be  constantly  on  our  guard 
against  transferring  to  that  life  conceptions  born 
of  our  own  limitations. 

This  illustrates  what  is  meant  by  saying  that 
thought  itself  has  a  parallax  with  reality  which 
we  must  never  forget.  A  further  parallax  is  found 
in  language,  which  is  only  an  imperfect  instru- 
ment for  the  expression  of  an  already  imperfect 
thought.  All  language  for  expressing  spiritual 
things  is  necessarily  based  on  metaphor.  How- 
ever spiritual  the  conception  itself  may  be,  it 
can  find  linguistic  expression  only  through  some 
physical  image  or  experience.  All  such  language 
is  literally  false,  but  we  use  it  in  the  hope  that 
it  will  be  taken,  not  for  what  it  says,  but  for 
what  it  means.  The  process  by  which  the  mind 


108  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

passes  from  the  metaphor  to  the  meaning  is  one 
of  the  dark  places  of  psychology  and  epistemo- 
logy;  but  it  is  fundamental  to  all  intellectual 
communion  through  hnguistic  or  any  symbolic 
expression. 

This  use  of  the  physical  to  express  the  spiritual 
is  especially  prominent  in  religion  and  theology. 
Here  we  perpetually  use  language  which  we  know 
to  be  literally  false  in  the  hope  that  it  will  be 
rightly  understood.  Thus  we  ascribe  form  and 
place  to  God,  and  speak  of  Jesus  as  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.  "  They  shall  see  his  face ; 
and  his  name  shall  be  in  their  foreheads."  God 
has  a  sword  and  arrows,  and  flies  upon  the  wings 
of  the  wind.  Of  course,  no  one  would  fancy  that 
any  objective  fact  corresponds  to  these  utterances. 
Again,  we  often  attribute  psychological  and  even 
physiological  experiences  to  God  which  are  neces- 
sarily limited  to  the  finite  spirit.  "  He  that  sitteth 
in  the  heavens  shall  laugh :  the  Lord  shall  have 
them  in  derision."  "And  it  repented  the  Lord 
that  he  had  made  man." 

Of  course,  we  do  not  object  to  the  use  of  lan- 
guage of  this  kind.  To  be  sure,  there  is  a  choice 
in  metaphors,  but  metaphor  of  some  sort  is  a  neces- 
sity of  religious  speech.  All  that  we  can  demand 
is  that  the  metaphor,  however  impossible  when 
literally  taken,  shall  adumbrate  a  true  conception 


INCAKNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       109 

or  make  a  true  impression.  Nevertheless,  tlaese 
considerations  show  us  that  we  must  beware  of 
taking  our  words  as  exact  and  literal  statements 
of  the  truth,  and  we  must  even  beware  of  taking 
our  thoughts  themselves  as  exhaustive  and  final 
conceptions  of  the  truth.  Thought  has  its  element 
of  relativity,  and  language  needs  more  than  the 
dictionary  for  its  interpretation.  Without  a  vital 
and  spiritual  process  there  is  no  possibility  of 
understanding  language,  and  there  is  hardly  any 
absurdity  which  may  not  be  evolved  from  lan- 
guage when  the  living  soul  is  lacking.  The  letter 
always  kills;  only  the  spirit,  the  understanding, 
can  profit. 

So  much  for  thought  and  language  in  general. 
It  is  further  plain  that,  for  setting  forth  the  great 
truth  of  the  divine  grace,  it  was  necessary  to  use 
the  actual  speech  and  conceptions  of  the  time. 
Any  revelation  which  might  be  made  to  men  must 
be  cast  in  the  existing  moulds  of  thought  and 
expression;  otherwise  it  would  be  unintelligible. 
Accordingly  we  find  the  great  salvation  set  forth 
in  the  language  of  ancient  life  and  custom.  In 
particular  the  religious  rites  and  traditions  of  the 
age  had  produced  a  great  system  of  thought  and 
speech,  and  in  terms  of  this  system  the  doctrine 
of  grace  was  naturally  cast.  The  language  of  the 
altar  and   temple,  the   customs  of  ransom  and 


110  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

redemption,  the  legal  usages  of  the  time,  all  lent 
themselves  to  its  expression.  Accordingly,  Christ 
is  a  sacrifice  and  propitiation  for  our  sins.  He  is 
the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world.  He  is  our  passover.  He  gives  his  life 
a  ransom  for  many,  and  thus  becomes  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world.  This  language  was  neces- 
sary. The  religious  thought  and  development  of 
the  time  would  have  been  inaccessible  to  any 
other.  Exact  theological  and  speculative  state- 
ment would  have  been  unintelligible,  or  confusing 
and  misleading,  just  as  exact  scientific  statement 
would  have  been  in  the  field  of  nature.  Thus  the 
language  of  the  time  is  used;  and  for  that  time 
and  for  all  times  it  makes  a  true  impression  ;  and 
Christian  thought  is  left,  under  the  guidance  of 
the  Spirit,  to  distinguish  between  the  spirit  and 
the  letter,  between  the  abiding  truth  and  the 
changing  form  of  its  expression. 

As  children  must  think  in  pictures  and  spatial 
forms,  and  only  slowly  pass  beyond  images  to 
conceptions,  or  beyond  pictures  to  meanings,  so 
the  entire  race  necessarily  began  its  religious 
thinking  in  the  picture  and  dramatic  form,  and 
only  slowly  and  very  imperfectly  reached  the 
form  of  conception  and  rational  significance.  We 
must  note  the  necessity  of  the  early  stages  of  this 
process,  and  also  their  temporary  character.  We 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        111 

must  also  note  the  practical  nature  of  Scripture 
language,  and  its  relativity  to  our  present  needs. 
It  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  that  the 
aim  is  to  make  a  practically  true  and  important 
impression,  and  that  the  language  must  not  be 
taken  in  an  absolute  sense,  as  i£  it  were  the  ex- 
pression of  a  speculative  finality.  The  truth  is 
to  be  found  in  the  impression  rather  than  in  any 
logical  or  dictionary  analysis  of  the  forms  of 
speech  ;  and  the  expression  and  understanding 
will  vary  with  the  growth  of  thought  and  life  and 
knowledge. 

The  language  of  Scripture,  then,  has  its 
pictorial,  dramatic,  metaphorical,  and  relative 
elements ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  set  aside  on  that 
account.  We  must  rather  seek  to  understand  it 
in  a  free  and  living  way,  neither  allowing  our- 
selves to  be  intimidated  by  the  dictionary,  nor 
rejecting  the  language  as  meaningless.  Metaphor 
is  metaphor,  indeed  ;  but  metaphor  in  all  intel- 
ligent speech  must  have  a  meaning.  How,  then, 
is  this  language  concerning  the  great  salvation  to 
be  understood  ? 

First  of  all,  we  may  consider  the  general  im- 
pression it  makes,  apart  from  any  question  as  to 
its  literal  truth.  And  the  thing  which  clearly 
appears  when  the  matter  is  thus  considered  is  a 
divine  work  of  condescending  grace.  We  see  the 


112  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

love  of  God  in  the  gift  of  his  Son,  and  the  love 
of  Christ  in  his  work  for  us,  and  the  gracious 
condition  in  which,  as  the  result  of  that  work, 
we  find  ourselves.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  pro- 
claimed. The  divine  love  is  declared,  and  the 
divine  help  is  proffered  to  all.  This  is  the  clear 
revelation  which  emerges  from  these  forms  of 
speech  ;  and  this  is  a  divine  gospel  which  is 
worthy  of  all  acceptation. 

So  long  as  the  language  is  thus  viewed  as  an 
instrument,  as  a  mode  of  putting  the  truth  and 
making  a  true  impression  concerning  the  grace 
of  God,  it  is  permissible  and  useful  so  far  and 
so  long  as  it  makes  that  impression.  As  just 
suggested,  it  was  originally  necessary,  and  it  is 
by  no  means  antiquated  now.  We  may  then  recog- 
nize its  value  as  a  form  of  expression,  and  at  the 
same  time  hold  its  purely  instrumental  character. 
We  may  hold  that  in  another  stage  of  moral  and 
religious  development  these  modes  of  speech 
would  not  be  the  best  possible  because  the  forms 
and  customs  on  which  they  rest  have  passed 
away.  For  instance,  we  may  well  believe  that 
the  biblical  forms  of  speech,  while  expressive 
and  necessary  for  the  time  when  they  originated, 
would  not  be  employed  if  the  Christian  teaching 
were  to  be  set  forth  for  the  first  time  to-day  ; 
just  as  swords  and  arrows  would  not  be  used  to 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       113 

represent  the  divine  weapons,  or  harps  would  not 
be  the  chief  musical  instrument  of  the  saints. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  the  doctrine  would  be  cast 
in  modern  moulds  rather  than  in  those  of  the 
Jewish.  Church  and  the  Roman  law.  There  is  no 
good  reason  for  thinking  that  those  ancient  forms 
have  an  eternal  fitness  beyond  all  others  for  ex- 
pressing the  grace  of  God.  We,  then,  who  inherit 
them  have  to  consider  not  so  much  what  was  said 
as  what  was  meant,  and  to  guard  ourselves 
against  a  worship  of  the  letter  which  shall  cause 
us  to  miss  the  spirit. 

The  significance  and  expressiveness  of  these 
ancient  forms  of  thought  and  speech  are  allowed 
when  they  are  taken  in  a  free  and  vital  way, 
and  are  not  reduced  to  literal  statements  of  fact. 
But  why  may  we  not  take  them  literally,  and 
view  them  as  exact  statements  of  an  objective 
process?  For  excellent  reasons,  which  we  now 
proceed  to  discuss. 

But,  first  of  all,  and  for  the  sake  of  clearness, 
we  must  make  a  distinction  in  order  to  avoid 
confusion.  We  distinguish  between  the  fact  and 
the  philosophy  of  the  atonement,  or  between  the 
atonement  as  a  fact  and  the  theories  of  the  atone- 
ment. By  the  atonement  as  fact  we  understand 
the   gracious   work  of   the  Lord  Jesus  for  the 


114  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

blessing  of  men.  All  else  is  theory  and  mode  of 
putting.  And  it  is  plain  that  one  might  well 
hold  fast  to  the  fact  with  all  conviction  and  de- 
votion, and  at  the  same  time  find  no  acceptable 
theory.  This  is  the  case  with  many  thoughtful 
Christians  at  present.  In  the  religious  life  the 
fact  is  the  effective  thing  and  the  abiding  thing ; 
the  theory  belongs  to  theology,  and  is  by  no 
means  a  constant  quantity.  The  grace  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  and  the  love  of  God  which  Jesus  re- 
vealed are  what  moves  men's  hearts  and  compels 
devotion.  The  cross  of  the  Lord  Jesus  was  that 
in  which  alone  Paul  would  glory,  not  the  govern- 
mental, or  any  other  theory  of  the  atonement. 
This  acceptance  of  the  fact  is  the  sum  of  the 
matter  with  the  great  body  of  Christians,  and  it 
is  all  that  is  practically  needed.  It  carries  with  it 
faith  in  the  love  of  God,  and  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  and  all  other  benefits  of  the  Saviour's  work. 
And  it  is  conceivable  that  a  Christian  agnosticism 
should  content  itself  with  accepting  the  fact  with- 
out any  theory  whatever.  A  Christian  teacher 
who  should  simply  proclaim  the  love  of  God  and 
the  self-sacrifice  of  the  Lord  Jesus  on  our  behalf 
would  proclaim  the  truth  of  the  atonement  far 
more  effectively  than  another  who  should  dwell 
on  its  philosophy.  The  former  is  intelligible  even 
to  the  wayfaring  man;  the  latter  is  not  every- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       115 

body's  affair;  indeed,  in  some  of  its  forms,  it 
would  not  seem  to  be  anybody's  affair. 

The  Scriptures  themselves  deal  mainly  with 
the  fact,  and  give  no  single  or  consistent  theory. 
The  statements  which  seem  theoretical  are  not 
harmonious  with  other  statements  by  other 
writers  or  even  by  the  same  writer ;  and  this 
shows  that  they  are  ways  of  putting  rather  than 
dogmatic  fiinalties. 

Let  it,  then,  be  clearly  understood  that  the 
present  discussion  does  not  concern  the  fact  of 
the  atonement  in  the  sense  defined,  but  only  the 
theory  of  it.  The  fact  we  affirm  and  insist  upon ; 
the  theory,  which  is  a  matter  mainly  of  theo- 
logical speculation,  remains  uncertain  until  now. 
With  this  understanding  we  return  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  Scripture  expressions  concerning 
the  work  of  Christ  are  to  be  literally  taken. 

The  answer  to  this  question  is.  No.  They  are 
expressions  of  the  truth  in  terms  of  the  thought 
and  speech  of  the  time,  and  as  such  are  signifi- 
cant and  expressive;  but  when  taken  in  any 
other  sense  they  become  incredible  or  immoral. 
This  appears  first  in  the  fact  that  the  Scriptures 
themselves  have  no  single  and  consistent  scheme 
of  expression.  This  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the 
age-long  debate  among  theologians  on  the  sub- 
ject. When  such  different  theories  can  be  held, 


116  STUDIES  m  CHRISTIANITY 

all  appealing  to  Scripture,  it  is  plain  that  the 
language  is  not  to  be  absolutely  taken,  or  that 
the  Scriptures  themselves  are  not  clear  and 
decisive  in  their  teaching.  In  particular,  two 
incommensurable  notions  underlie  the  general 
New  Testament  exposition.  One  is  the  notion 
of  substitution  based  on  the  sacrificial  figures  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  is  the  notion 
of  the  imputed  merits  and  righteousness  of  Christ 
whereby  the  believer  is  justified.  These  two 
conceptions  are  entirely  disparate  when  taken 
literally,  and  can  never  be  united  in  one  homo- 
geneous thought.  They  serve  well  to  express 
the  salvation  wrought  out  by  the  Saviour,  and  the 
safety  in  which  the  disciple  exists  because  of  the 
redeeming  work;  but  if  we  take  them  in  strict 
literalness  we  are  forthwith  lost.  In  general  the 
New  Testament  writers,  and  especially  Paul,  were 
laboring  to  express  the  great  salvation  and  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God  thence 
resulting;  and  they  availed  themselves,  as  we 
have  said,  of  all  the  customs,  religious  and  so- 
cial, which  might  serve  for  expression.  If  sin  be 
thought  of  as  a  debt,  it  is  paid.  If  it  be  thought 
of  as  a  slavery,  we  are  redeemed  or  ransomed. 
If  it  be  thought  of  as  guilt  demanding  atone- 
ment and  propitiation  and  expiation,  there  has 
been  one  supreme  sacrifice  for  sin.  If  we  think 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       117 

of  the  mediating  high  priest  of  the  old  Temple, 
we,  too,  have  a  Mediator  and  a  High  Priest, 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  who  has  passed  into  the 
heavens,  where  he  ever  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion for  us.  If  we  think  of  our  guilt  and  un- 
worthiness,  we  are  clothed  with  the  righteousness 
of  Christ  and  are  accepted  in  the  Beloved.  This 
language  springs  naturally  out  of  the  customs 
and  modes  of  thought  of  the  time;  and  it  is 
striking  and  expressive  when  taken  as  the  lan- 
guage of  devout  emotion  and  adoring  gratitude; 
but  it  is  full  of  embarrassment  when  taken  in 
rigid  literalness.  Much  of  it  also  is  foreign  to 
our  modes  of  thought,  and  has  to  be  translated 
into  modern  forms  of  conception  before  we  can 
make  much  out  of  it. 

Yet  many  persons,  with  little  insight  into  the 
way  in  which  living  language  is  used,  find  it 
hard  to  distinguish  between  such  instrumental 
and  adumbrative  use  of  language  and  its  false- 
hood. If  the  language  does  not  mean  what  it 
says,  they  fancy  it  must  be  false.  Yet  how  much 
of  religious  or  other  language  means  what  it 
says  ?  God  is  spoken  of  as  a  fortress,  a  dwelling- 
place  of  his  people,  as  covering  his  saints  with 
his  feathers,  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in 
a  weary  land,  while  the  righteous  trust  under 
his  wings  and  abide  under  the  shadow  of   the 


118  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

Almighty.  All  of  these  statements  are  literally 
false,  and  the  various  conceptions  are  mutually 
contradictory.  Even  the  dullest  can  see  this. 
Even  the  dullest  perceives  that  the  truth  of  such 
language  lies  in  the  idea  it  conveys,  and  that 
contradictory  or  incommensurable  figures  may 
be  used  to  express  the  same  truth.  But  fancy  the 
result  if  any  one  should  insist  on  taking  this 
language  with  mechanical  literalness.  We  have 
similar  absurdity  or  impossibility  when  we  take 
with  rigid  literalness  the  Scripture  language  con- 
cerning the  Saviour's  work. 

The  same  impossibility  is  further  seen  from 
the  progress  of  theological  discussion  concerning 
the  atonement.  The  language  of  satisfaction, 
payment  of  debt,  etc.,  has  been  universally  aban- 
doned in  theory,  or  else  so  modified  that  it 
means  something  else.  The  latter  is  the  more 
common  course.  This  makes  it  possible  to  retain 
the  language  of  Scripture  and  restrict  it  to  a 
permissible  meaning,  which  reduces  to  a  conten- 
tion for  words  rather  than  for  ideas.  But  Anti- 
nomianism  was  seen  to  be  the  immediate  and 
unavoidable  conclusion  when  the  lanffuag-e  was 
literally  taken.  The  debt  was  paid  or  the  penalty 
was  exacted,  and  the  sinner  was,  of  course,  free. 
The  payment  was  demanded  in  the  name  of 
justice ;    and,  payment  once  made,  justice  could 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   119 

never  demand  or  even  permit  that  it  be  paid 
twice.  The  same  conclusion  resulted  from  the 
suppositions  of  substitution  and  satisfaction.  Sup- 
posing these  to  be  psychologically  or  morally  con- 
ceivable, which  is  far  from  evident,  it  resulted 
at  once  that  the  sinner  was  unconditionally 
free.  The  suggestion  of  conditions  whereby  some 
souofht  to  elude  this  conclusion  did  credit  to  their 
moral  sense,  but  not  to  their  logic.  Such  substi- 
tution, in  the  nature  of  the  case,  was  in  the  indic- 
ative mood,  and  either  was  or  was  not  the  fact. 
If  it  was  the  fact,  nothing  either  great  or  small 
remained  for  the  sinner  to  do.  But  if  something 
did  remain,  then  it  was  not  a  literal  substitution 
or  an  absolute  satisfaction,  but  something  else,  a 
substitution  which  did  not  substitute,  a  satisfac- 
tion which  did  not  satisfy.  With  this  result  the 
doctrine  became,  as  just  said,  a  contention  for 
words.  It  was  thought  necessary  to  say  substitu- 
tion and  say  satisfaction,  but  the  meaning  was 
left  indefinite.  The  Antinomians,  the  holders  of 
the  unconditional  perseverance  of  the  saints,  and 
the  Calvinistic  Universalists  of  the  death-and- 
glory  type,  were  the  only  logical  defenders  of  the 
literal  view ;  and  even  they  did  not  duly  con- 
sider the  embarrassing  fact  that,  in  spite  of  the 
substitution,  the  saints  are  left  to  endure  for 
themselves  the  visible  consequences  of  sin ;  and 


120  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

this  was  well  calculated  to  awaken  the  suspicion 
that  perhaps  the  invisible  consequences  might 
come  around  to  them  also.  But  the  progress  of 
theological  thought,  and  the  loud  protest  of  the 
moral  reason  have  compelled  the  abandonment  of 
this  theory  in  any  literal  sense.  It  is  seen  in  its 
non-literal  character. 

Methodist  and  other  Arminian  writers  have 
generally  succeeded  in  making  this  point  clear; 
and,  as  a  consequence,  the  view  of  the  atonement 
most  in  favor  with  them  is  some  form  of  the  gov- 
ernmental theory,  and  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  language  of  the  Scriptures  so  largely 
lends  itself  to  the  abandoned  views.  This  fact  is 
interesting  as  showing  th^  settled  conviction  that 
the  language  of  Scripture  must  be  interpreted 
in  accordance  with  our  moral  reason,  no  matter 
what  it  seems  to  say.  It  also  shows  that,  for 
Arminians  at  least,  the  problem  is  not  one  which 
can  be  solved  by  dictionaries  alone;  for  the  gov- 
ernmental theory  is  about  the  last  thing  the 
dictionary  method  would  evolve  from  the  text  of 
Scripture.  In  fact,  no  theory  departs  more  widely 
from  the  literal  language  of  the  Bible;  and  its 
lawyer-like  devices  appeal  neither  to  the  heart 
nor  to  the  conscience.  Its  non-literal  character 
will  clearly  appear  if  we  take  almost  any  of  the 
leading  texts  on  this  subject  and  substitute   the 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       121 

conceptions  of  the  rectoral  theory.  Still  it  was  a 
moral  advance  upon  an  immoral  or  impossible 
literalism.  This  general  fact  is  especially  com- 
mended to  the  consideration  of  all  those  who, 
not  having  mastered  the  distinction  between  the 
fact  and  the  theory  of  the  Saviour's  redeeming 
work,  are  prone  to  mistake  a  departure  from  the 
latter  for  a  rejection  of  the  spirit.  No  Arminian 
who  understands  his  own  position  can  ever  be 
a  literalist  in  this  matter.  There  is  all  the  more 
need  of  emphasizing  this  point  from  the  fact 
that  popular  religious  speech,  and  especially  pop- 
ular hymns,  are  saturated  with  substitutional 
and  sacrificial  literalism,  and  thus  the  idea  is 
easily  formed  that  this  is  the  very  gist  and 
essence  of  the  gospel.  This  error  is  inevitable  to 
all  who  interpret  religious  speech  as  the  language 
of  a  dogma  or  a  statute. 

There  is,  then,  no  literal  substitution  of  one 
person  for  another,  no  literal  satisfaction  of  the 
claims  of  justice,  no  literal  payment  of  a  debt,  no 
literal  ransom  or  redemption,  but  a  work  of  grace 
on  our  behalf  which  may  be  more  or  less  well  de- 
scribed in  these  terms.  One  who  has  been  saved 
from  sin  and  restored  to  righteousness  and  the 
divine  favor  may  well  think  of  himself  as  re- 
deemed and  ransomed,  or  as  freed  from  debts  he 
could  never  pay.    And  he  might  also  well  and 


122  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

truly  think  of  his  Saviour  as  having  offered  him- 
self up  as  a  sacrifice  for  him,  as  having  died  for 
him  and  redeemed  him  by  his  blood.  But  this  is 
the  language  of  emotion,  and  devotion,  and  grati- 
tude, and  discipleship.  It  is  the  language  of  the 
Christian  heart  and  life,  not  the  language  of  theo- 
logical theory.  To  turn  it  into  the  mechanical  letter 
of  theory  is  to  lose  the  spirit  which  alone  giveth 
life.  We  have  now  to  inquire  into  its  theoretical 
and  theological  meaning. 

The  theory  of  the  atonement  has  largely  been 
vitiated  by  two  prominent  mistakes.  First,  it  has 
been  discussed  in  terms  of  abstractions  and  in 
very  general  oversight  of  the  concrete  facts  of  the 
case;  and,  secondly,  the  relations  of  non-moral 
things  have  been  substituted  for  the  relations  of 
moral  persons. 

The  mass  of  the  discussion  illustrates  the  first 
point.  Abstract  notions  of  justice  and  government 
have  been  put  forward  as  fundamental ;  and  va- 
rious statements  have  been  made  as  to  what  they 
demand.  Much  of  this  work  was  done  ad  hoc, 
and  represented  no  unsophisticated  utterance  of 
the  moral  reason.  It  was  the  work  of  advocates 
rather  than  of  inquirers.  The  failure  to  under- 
stand the  instrumental  and  adumbrative  nature 
of  language  led  to  the  fancy  that  every  bold  and 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        123 

striking  metaphor  was  a  literal  fact ;  and  the  spec- 
ulator had  to  conduct  himself  accordingly.  This 
led  to  unlimited  sophistication  of  reason  and  con- 
science. Justice  was  defined  as  only  a  theologian 
could  define  it.  The  final  cause  of  the  definition 
was  to  work  the  theory  and  catch  the  sinner.  The 
moral  nature  had  few  rights  which  theology  was 
bound  to  respect.  The  claims  of  the  Divine  Sover- 
eign were  the  supreme  thing,  and  were  determined 
in  accordance  with  the  political  absolutism  of  the 
time.  The  Heavenly  Father,  the  God  of  Love, 
nowhere  appears.  In  his  place  was  a  Being  very 
jealous  for  his  own  honor,  and  careful  to  exact  the 
uttermost  farthing.  To  be  sure,  the  atonement 
was  said  to  be  the  work  of  love,  but  in  its  philo- 
sophy love  entirely  disappeared.  The  entire  oper- 
ation was  carried  on  in  a  fashion  unpleasantly 
suggestive  of  an  almighty  Shy  lock.  In  addition, 
the  makeshifts  of  human  governments,  which  re- 
sult solely  from  their  imperfection,  were  taken  as 
models  for  our  thought  of  the  divine  procedure. 
Thus  an  indefinite  amount  of  sophistication  and 
moral  hocus-pocus  was  introduced  into  the  theory. 
A  brief  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  discussion 
will  illustrate  this  matter.  Before  the  time  of  An- 
selm  the  theory  of  the  atonement  had  not  been  elab- 
orated. In  the  main,  Scripture  language  was  used, 
and  in  the  early  Church  many  fruitful  glimpses 


124  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  the  positive  and  moral  meaning  of  the  Saviour's 
•work  abound.  Christ  came  not  merely  to  remove 
the  curse,  but  also  to  give  men  power  to  become 
the  children  of  God.  God  became  man  that  men 
should  become  divine.  But  these  truths  were  only 
dimly  seen,  and  were  not  freed  from  distorting 
misconceptions  and  elaborated  into  systematic 
expression  before  the  collapse  of  the  classical 
civilization.  There  were  some  floating  notions 
that  the  need  of  the  atonement  rested  on  the 
veracity  of  God  ;  and  in  cruder  minds  there  was 
a  fancy  that  the  devil  was  a  party  to  the  transac- 
tion. He  had  acquired  a  right  and  title  in  man, 
it  seems,  by  virtue  of  our  sin ;  and  the  work  of 
redemption  consisted  in  extinguishing  this  claim. 
This  was  often  done  in  a  rather  doubtful  fashion, 
which  was  excused,  however,  by  the  consideration 
that  the  devil  deserved  to  be  defrauded.  AU  of 
this  was  definitely  set  aside  by  Anselm,  who  left 
out  the  devil  entirely,  and  brought  forward  the 
justice  of  God  as  the  divine  attribute  which 
demanded  a  substitutional  suifering  for  man,  if 
he  were  to  be  redeemed.  On  this  basis  the  theory 
was  built  up. 

Sin,  Anselm  defines  as  the  failure  to  give  God 
his  due.  By  sin  a  debt  of  indefinite  magnitude  is 
incurred.  God  is  defrauded  of  his  due,  which  is 
especially  the  honor  owed  him  by  his  creatures ; 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   126 

and  to  be  just  to  himself  God  must  conserve  this 
honor.  This  can  be  done  only  by  the  punishment 
of  the  sinner,  or  by  a  sufficient  satisfaction  for 
sin.  Satisfaction  for  sin  consists  in  restoring 
what  the  sinner  has  taken  away,  and  in  making 
due  recompense  for  the  dishonor  of  God  arising 
from  sin.  Of  course,  man  can  never  make  this 
satisfaction,  and  hence  arises  the  need  of  the  God- 
man,  who  alone  can  bring  salvation.  Throughout 
the  discussion  three  things  are  confused :  the  fact 
of  the  atonement,  the  theory  of  the  atonement, 
and  the  theory  of  the  person  of  the  Redeemer. 
The  subject  is  quantitatively  and  commercially 
conceived  ;  and  the  entire  discussion  goes  on  so 
abstractly  that  neither  God  nor  man,  as  a  moral 
being  with  moral  ends,  has  much  interest  in 
the  case.  There  is  nothing  in  it  that  speaks 
clearly  and  convincingly  to  the  consciousness  and 
moral  reason  of  any  one.  The  abstract  notions 
of  justice,  sin,  satisfaction  are  shuffled  and 
quantitatively  measured  against  one  another ;  and 
this  is  the  true  theory  of  the  atonement. 

In  such  crude  notions  the  Christian  philosophy 
of  the  atonement  began  ;  and  it  has  been  in  un- 
stable equilibrium  ever  since.  How  crudely  it  has 
been  managed  is  familiar  to  every  one  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine.  Apart  from 
the  crude  and  unworthy  conceptions  of  God  and 


126  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

his  government,  borrowed  from  the  undeveloped 
political  and  ethical  philosophy  of  the  time,  jus- 
tice was  made  into  something  abstract  which 
demanded  penalty  or  payment ;  and  the  penalty 
also  was  made  something  so  abstract  that  justice 
was  quite  indifferent  who  paid  it,  provided  it  was 
paid.  Thus  the  thought  was  reached  that  justice 
might  be  satisfied  by  the  pain  of  a  second  party ; 
and  in  this  way  the  possibility  of  atonement  was 
secured.  But,  then,  in  order  to  retain  a  hold  on 
the  sinner,  it  was  further  held  by  all  but  the  most 
rigorous  logicians  that  the  penalty  already  once 
exacted  from  the  Redeemer  might  justly  be  ex- 
acted again  from  the  sinner.  Without  this  draw- 
back the  theory  fell  into  Antinomianism  ;  and 
with  it,  it  fell  into  contradiction  with  itself. 

Thus  the  theory  is  full  of  internal  inconsist- 
ency. The  atonement  is  said  to  be  necessary  to 
the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  but,  in  truth,  when  the 
atonement  is  thus  conceived,  there  is  no  forgive- 
ness. To  demand  satisfaction,  whether  by  sub- 
stitution, or  otherwise,  is  to  collect  the  debt  or 
inflict  the  penalty  which  in  forgiveness  is  for- 
given. But  if  the  debt  is  paid,  or  the  penalty  is 
exacted,  there  is  nothing  to  forgive.  If,  after  such 
satisfaction,  payment  or  penalty  is  still  demanded, 
we  have  no  forgiveness,  but  simply  a  trick  where- 
by the  debtor  and  his  surety  are  defrauded,  while 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       127 

the  creditor  gets  paid  twice.  Not  even  faith  could 
be  demanded  of  the  sinner  on  this  scheme  ;  for 
either  the  lack  of  faith  as  a  sin  is  atoned  for,  or 
else  something  stands  apart  from  the  range  of  the 
atonement ;  and  this,  according  to  the  theory, 
would  be  a  fatal  admission. 

Thus  forgiveness  and  even  love  itself  disappear 
so  far  as  the  Father  is  concerned.  The  love  is  on 
the  part  of  the  Son  ;  but  the  Father  is  simply 
satisfied  by  paying  the  debt,  and  has  no  further 
claims.  A  recent  religious  publication  contains  a 
good  illustration  of  this  result.  A  preacher  repre- 
sents himself  as  having  called  on  an  old  saint  in 
obscure  life,  and  as  having  asked  her  if  she  did 
not  wonder  at  God's  goodness  in  forgiving  her 
sins.  To  his  surprise  she  replied,  No.  This  seemed 
to  him  to  argue  a  great  insensibility,  and  he  set 
forth  the  divine  grace,  and  repeated  his  question. 
But  once  more  the  answer  was,  No.  God,  she  said, 
was  only  just  in  forgiving  her  sins,  since  Jesus 
had  taken  her  place,  and  paid  it  all.  Then  the 
preacher  discerned,  according  to  his  own  account, 
that  he  had  been  the  dull  one,  and  that  the  old 
saint  had  entered  more  deeply  than  he  into  the 
meaning  of  the  gospel.  Such  a  ghastly  travesty 
of  the  doctrine  of  grace  is  possible  only  to  pro- 
found mental  and  moral  illiteracy. 

Equally  confused  was  the  traditional  theory  as 


128  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

to  the  relation  of  Christ  to  his  work  whereby  he 
became  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  Of  course,  there 
was  a  strong  tendency  to  fix  attention  on  the  phy- 
sical fact  of  death  and  its  physical  attendants  as 
the  supreme  and  essential  thing ;  and  this  often 
ran  into  hysterical  excesses  from  which  we  are  not 
even  yet  entirely  free.  But,  apart  from  these,  we 
find  in  the  exposition  a  continual  osciDation  be- 
tween Christ  as  literal  substitute,  whose  sufferings 
were  a  literal  equivalent  for  the  pains  due  from 
us  for  our  sins,  and  Christ  as  having  infinite 
merit,  which  makes  us  righteous  by  being  trans- 
ferred to  us.  The  notions  of  merit  and  satisfaction 
having  been  distinguished,  it  became  a  puzzle  to 
know  how  Christ  could  have  any  excess  of  merit 
which  might  be  transferred  to  another.  The  merit 
was  supposed  to  arise  from  his  perfect  obedience ; 
but  then  the  query  arose  whether  this  obedience 
was  not  his  duty,  so  that,  after  all,  Christ  did  no 
more  than  his  duty,  and,  hence,  had  no  excess  of 
merit  to  transfer.  This  scruple  was  met  by  the  dis- 
tinction of  active  and  passive  obedience.  In  the 
former  Christ  remained  within  the  bounds  of  his 
obligation ;  but  in  the  latter  he  transcended  re- 
quirement, and  this  provided  a  store  of  merit 
which  might  be  transferred.  But  the  interpretation 
was  not  constant.  Sometimes  the  passive  obedience 
did  away  with  our  sin  and  guilt,  and  the  active 


INCAKNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   129 

obedience  secured  for  us  the  necessary  merit.  The 
double  obedience  became  quite  a  labyrinth  of  bar- 
ren subtleties.  What  the  transfer  of  moral  merit 
or  moral  character  would  mean  in  any  case  is,  of 
course,  an  insoluble  question ;  but  these  mechan- 
ical thinkers  gave  little  attention  to  this  phase  of 
the  problem. 

And  just  as  little  was  the  theory  thought 
through  with  reference  to  God  the  Father.  The 
theorists  largely  tended  to  make  him  the  incar- 
nation of  justice,  and  as  needing  to  be  propitiated 
by  sacrifice  and  suffering  of  some  kind.  This,  as 
said,  was  often  carried  so  far  as  to  miss  the  love 
of  God  altogether,  in  the  most  flagrant  contra- 
diction of  Scripture.  The  Father  was  full  of  wrath 
and  vengeance,  from  which  he  was  turned  away 
only  by  the  suffering  and  supplication  of  the  Son. 
This  notion  crept  into  the  creeds  and  popular 
hymns,  and  still  appears  in  the  cruder  utterances 
of  the  pulpit.  Thus  the  true  order  is  inverted. 
The  love  of  God  to  man  is  made  the  effect  of  the 
atonement,  whereas  the  Scriptures  represent  the 
atonement  as  the  effect  of  the  Father's  love.  God 
so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  Son;  God 
was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself; 
and  God  in  Christ,  not  God  for  Christ's  sake,  for- 
gives us. 

But  when   this   error  was  avoided,   and   the 


130  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

Saviour's  work  was  seen  to  root  and  rise  in  the 
Father's  love,  it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  say 
in  what  the  propitiation  for  sin  consisted,  or  what 
necessity  existed  for  it  as  any  objective  fact. 
Certainly  the  father  of  the  prodigal  son  did  not 
need  to  propitiate  himself  or  to  have  any  one  else 
propitiate  him  when  the  repentant  prodigal  came 
home ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  see  any  greater  diffi- 
culty in  God's  pardon  of  men. 

Equally  obscure  was  the  objective  meaning  of 
the  propitation  made  by  the  Son  to  the  Father. 
No  one  could  tell  what  it  meant  when  the  matter 
was  analyzed  and  clarified.  Phrases  and  terms, 
some  Scriptural  and  some  not,  abounded ;  but 
few  cared  to  take  them  in  strict  literalness.  They 
had  to  be  explained  or  turned  into  mysteries 
before  they  could  be  adopted.  On  account  of 
these  difficulties  the  holders  of  the  governmental 
theory  abandoned  the  notion  of  a  personal  pro- 
pitiation, and  made  it  rectoral.  But  propitiation 
was  a  poor  term  for  such  a  regent's  device.  It 
satisfied  neither  the  language  of  Scripture  nor 
the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  disciple.  The 
truth  is,  the  theorists  were  bent  on  saving  the 
language,  and  failed  to  note  its  figurative  and 
non-absolute  character.  To  persons  living  in  the 
midst  of  sacrificial  customs  and  conceptions,  the 
figure  of  propitiation  would  well  set  forth  the  re- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   131 

pentance  and  submission  of  the  sinner,  and  the 
gracious  disposition  on  the  part  of  God ;  and  this 
was  the  underlying  truth,  and  the  only  truth  we 
can  find.  If  we  insist  on  more,  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  saying  propitiation,  without  mean- 
ing anything  beyond,  possibly,  the  affirmation  of 
an  inscrutable  and  ineffable  mystery ;  and  that 
could  be  more  directly  exjDressed. 

And,  then,  when  the  theory  was  at  last  ad- 
justed, it  still  would  not  work.  For  the  theory, 
such  as  it  was,  seemed  to  imply  the  removal  of  all 
the  consequences  of  sin ;  and,  unluckily,  many 
of  these  visibly  remained.  In  spite  of  the  substi- 
tution, or  satisfaction,  or  expiation,  as  we  have 
said  before,  the  saints,  and  even  the  elect,  are  left 
to  endure  for  themselves  the  visible  consequences 
of  sin ;  and  this  is  well  calculated  to  awaken 
the  suspicion  that  the  invisible  consequences  also 
may  come  around  to  them  in  the  course  of  time. 
Thus  the  theory  is  seen  to  be  mal-adjusted  to 
reality.  We  may  still  insist  on  substitution  and 
expiation ;  but  we  have  to  admit  that  it  is  a  sub- 
stitution which,  so  far  as  experience  goes,  does 
not  substitute,  and  an  expiation  which  does  not 
expiate. 

Thus  the  dialectic  of  these  unrhymed  notions 
appears.  They  are  a  tissue  of  inconsistencies  aris- 
ing from  taking  the  free  and  living  language  of 


132  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

Scripture  in  a  hard,  mechanical  fashion.  And  the 
notions  themselves  are  taken  in  a  non-natural  sense. 
The  abstract  justice  of  this  theory  exists  only  in 
the  theory.  If  justice  demands  anything,  it  is  the 
punishment  of  the  sinner  himself.  Only  a  mind 
debauched  by  theology  would  ever  dream  of  call- 
ing anything  justice  which  contented  itself  with 
penalty,  no  matter  who  paid  it  j  and  only  the  same 
type  of  mind  could  tolerate  a  justice  which  de- 
manded or  permitted  double  payment.  The  worthy 
doctors  who  speculated  in  this  way  were  in  great 
straits.  They  thought  that  they  must  take  Scrip- 
ture language  as  dogma,  and  interpret  it  like  a 
statute;  and  they  felt  that  they  must  save  their 
scheme  from  its  immoral  implications.  This  they 
sought  to  do  by  introducing  the  contradictory 
notion  of  a  conditional  satisfaction  ;  which  satis- 
faction became  such  by  being  called  satisfaction. 
Somethino;  of  the  same  abstract  and  fictitious 
character  appears  in  the  governmental  theory, 
inaugurated  by  Grotius  and  variously  elaborated 
since  his  time.  According  to  this  view  the  diffi- 
culty in  forgiving  sin  does  not  lie  in  God  himself 
as  moral  being,  but  in  his  rectoral  relations  as 
governor  of  the  universe.  These  complicate  the 
matter  and  form  the  problem.  God  himself,  as 
moral  person,  needs  no  propitiation,  and  justice  is 
not  incompatible  with  forgiveness.  But  as  ruler 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       133 

God  must  magnify  the  law  and  make  it  honor- 
able. Hence  the  need  of  the  atonement. 

If  we  take  this  view  abstractly,  and  interpret  it 
in  its  own  terms,  we  are  still  in  the  midst  of  con- 
fusion. The  law  must  indeed  be  magnified  and 
made  honorable;  but  this  cannot  be  done  in  the 
forensic  fashion  which  this  theory  proposes.  In 
what  way  is  the  law  magnified  and  made  hon- 
orable by  the  suffering  of  an  innocent  person 
instead  of  the  transgressor  ?  In  what  way  would 
such  suffering  reveal  God's  hatred  of  sin  or  his 
love  for  sinners?  Unless  the  problem  be  treated 
from  the  standpoint  of  vicarious  love,  such  suf- 
fering would  argue  a  blindness  or  indifference 
to  moral  distinctions  which  would  be  a  source  of 
terror  rather  than  of  confidence.  Besides,  the 
rectoral  difficulty  itself,  when  inspected,  is  found 
to  be  imaginary.  It  has  been  the  rule  to  point 
out  that  human  rulers  cannot  forgive  on  simple 
repentance,  and  this  has  been  thought  decisive. 
But  this  is  very  superficial.  Human  governors 
must  proceed  by  crude  methods  because  of  the  im- 
possibility of  surely  knowing  the  heart;  but  even 
here  we  are  rapidly  coming  to  see  that  when  true 
reform  is  reached,  neither  government,  nor  soci- 
ety, nor  morality  has  any  interest  in  further  pun- 
ishment. The  indeterminate  sentence  embodies 
this  principle  or  rests  upon  it.    If  a  community 


134  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

were  able  to  make  its  unrighteous  members  right- 
eous, justice  would  be  satisfied  to  let  them  go  free. 
The  real  difficulty  is  not  rectoral,  but  dynamic. 
Forgiveness  upon  repentance,  with  the  limita- 
tions hereafter  to  be  mentioned,  is  entirely  in 
order.  How  to  produce  true  moral  repentance  is 
the  real  problem. 

Equally  misinterpreted  were  the  vicarious  fea- 
tures of  human  life.  The  innocent  suffer  on  ac- 
count of  the  guilty,  especially  in  rescuing  them 
from  the  evil  case  into  which  they  have  fallen 
through  the  transgression  of  the  laws  of  their 
being.  But  there  is  nothing  in  this  of  the  nature 
of  satisfaction,  or  substitution,  or  of  an  example 
which  magrnifies  the  law  and  makes  it  honorable. 

Vicarious  suffering  and  vicarious  sacrifice 
abound  in  life,  owing  to  the  solidarity  of  life  and 
especially  to  the  solidarity  of  love,  but  there  is 
a  world-wide  difference  between  them  and  vicor 
rious  punishmfient.  The  former  we  all  accept  as 
love's  greatest  manifestation  ;  the  latter  is  the 
caricature  by  mechanical  minds  of  love's  supreme 
manifestation,  so  as  to  turn  God's  grace  itself 
into  one  of  the  great  stumbling-blocks  to  its  ac- 
ceptance. The  facts  of  vicarious  sacrifice  fit  only 
into  the  moral  view  of  the  atonement.  Indeed, 
it  is  clear  that  unless  this  question  be  transferred 
from  the  field  of  judicial  abstractions  to  that  of 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       135 

concrete  moral  relations  this  reetoral  theory  also 
is  hopelessly  bad  ;  and  with  this  transfer  it  passes 
over  into  the  moral  theory.  Vicarious  suffering 
of  the  kind  just  mentioned  would  be  moral;  but 
in  any  other  sense  it  would  reveal  neither  love, 
nor  justice,  nor  morality  of  any  permissible  kind. 
This  notion  of  an  "  example  "  for  the  sake  of 
the  law  is  even  worse  than  that  of  a  substitute. 
There  is  a  kind  of  gloomy,  tragic  grandeur  about 
the  latter ;  but  the  former  is  merely  a  regent's 
device.  It  provides  no  satisfaction  for  sins  com- 
mitted or  to  be  committed;  it  is  only  a  kind  of 
police  measure  to  frighten  off  future  transgres- 
sion. The  value  of  this  theory  consists  in  its  re- 
volt against  the  moral  scandals  and  impossibil- 
ities of  the  satisfaction  doctrine  whereby  it  became 
a  step  in  theological  progress.  But  in  itself  it  is 
a  halfway  measure  both  exegetically  and  morally. 
Professor  A.  A.  Hodge  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  theat- 
rical inculcation  of  principles  which  were  not  truly 
involved  in  the  case."  ^  If  grammars  and  lexicons 
are  to  settle  the  question,  the  reetoral  theory  is  a 
heresy  ;  and  it  was  long  so  considered,  and  is  so 
considered  even  now  by  a  large  part  of  the  Chris- 
tian world.  A  theory  for  whose  enunciation  we 
had  to  wait  sixteen  hundred  years,  and  which  is 
now  rejected  by  great  bodies  of  Christian  think- 

1  Quoted  by  Dr.  Hunger  in  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  242,  note. 


136  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ers,  can  hardly  be  reached  by  simply  reading  off 
the  text.  The  language  of  Scripture  is  sacrificial, 
substitutional,  and  satisfactional,  and  would  sound 
strange  enough  if  it  were  translated  into  the 
terms  of  the  rectoral  theory.  Not  grammatical 
exegesis  but  the  moral  reason  is  the  great  source 
of  the  theory,  and  to  satisfy  this  reason  the  theory 
must  go  farther  than  it  has  gone.  The  reasons 
which  produced  it  are  carrying  us  beyond  it. 

These  things  illustrate  the  abstract  method  of 
discussino;  the  atonement,  and  also  warn  us 
against  it.  By  that  method  we  reach  only  confu- 
sion, and  lose  sight  of  reason  and  conscience  and 
reality  altogether.  It  is  equally  dangerous  to  dis- 
cuss it  in  terms  of  things,  and  not  from  the  stand- 
point of  moral  persons.  The  difference  is  weU 
illustrated  by  the  following  quotation  from  Cole- 
ridge :  — 

"  A  sum  of  £1000  is  due  from  James  to  Peter, 
for  which  James  has  given  a  bond.  He  is  insol- 
vent, and  the  bond  is  on  the  point  of  being  put  in 
suit  against  him,  to  James's  utter  ruin.  At  this 
point  Matthew  steps  in,  pays  Peter  the  thousand 
pounds,  and  discharges  the  bond.  In  this  case 
no  man  would  hesitate  to  admit  that  a  complete 
satisfaction  had  been  made  to  Peter.  Matthew's 
£1000  is  a  perfect  equivalent  for  the  sum  which 
James  was  bound  to  have  paid,  and  which  Peter 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       137 

had  lent.  It  is  the  same  thing,  and  this  is  alto- 
gether a  question  of  things.  Now,  instead  of 
James  being  indebted  to  Peter  in  a  sum  of  money 
which  (he  having  become  insolvent)  Matthew 
pays  for  him,  let  me  put  the  case  that  James  had 
been  guilty  of  the  basest  and  most  hard-hearted 
ingratitude  to  a  most  worthy  and  affectionate 
mother,  who  had  not  only  performed  all  the 
duties  and  tender  offices  of  a  mother,  but  whose 
whole  heart  was  bound  up  in  this  her  only  child, 
...  all  which  he  had  repaid  by  neglect,  deser- 
tion, and  open  profligacy.  Here  the  mother 
stands  in  the  relation  of  the  creditor  ;  and  here, 
too,  I  will  suppose  the  same  generous  friend  to 
interfere,  and  to  perform  with  the  greatest  ten- 
derness and  constancy  all  those  duties  of  a  grate- 
ful and  affectionate  son  which  James  ought  to 
have  performed.  Will  this  satisfy  the  mother's 
claims  on  James,  or  entitle  him  to  her  esteem, 
approbation,  and  blessing  ?  Or  what  if  Matthew, 
the  vicarious  son,  should  at  length  address  her 
in  words  to  this  purpose  :  ^  Now  I  trust  you  are 
appeased,  and  will  be  henceforward  reconciled  to 
James.  I  have  satisfied  all  your  claims  on  him.  I 
have  paid  his  debt  in  full ;  and  you  are  too  just 
to  require  the  same  debt  to  be  paid  twice  over. 
You  will,  therefore,  regard  him  with  the  same 
complacency,  receive  him  into  your  presence  with 


138  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  same  love,  as  if  there  had  been  no  difference 
between  him  and  you.  For  I  have  made  it  up.' 
What  other  reply  could  the  swelling  heart  of  the 
mother  dictate  than  this  :  *  0,  misery  !  and  is  it 
possible  that  you  are  in  league  with  my  unnatural 
son  to  insult  me  ?  Must  not  the  very  necessity  of 
your  abandonment  of  your  proper  sphere  form 
an  additional  evidence  of  his  guilt?  Must  not  the 
sense  of  your  goodness  teach  me  more  fully  to 
comprehend,  more  vividly  to  feel,  the  evil  in 
him?  Must  not  the  contrast  of  your  merits  mag- 
nify his  demerits  in  his  mother's  eye,  and  at  once 
recall  and  embitter  the  conviction  of  the  canker- 
worm  in  his  soul  ?  '  "  ^ 

This  passage  is  decisive.  It  shows  how  odious 
and  abominable  are  the  results  when  we  discuss 
this  doctrine  in  terms  of  things  and  apply  them 
to  the  relations  of  moral  persons ;  and  also  how 
utterly  impossible  it  is  that  any  one  should  ever 
take  another's  place  in  his  moral  relations.  It 
would  be  playing  hide-and-seek  with  intelligence 
and  conscience,  a  series  of  make-believes  and  false 
pretenses,  a  calling  of  black  white,  and  a  pretend- 
in  o-  that  it  is  white  when  all  the  while  it  is  black,  and 
we  know  it  is  black.  Turning  a  black  man  into  a 
white  man  by  putting  a  white  robe  on  him  would 
not  be  more  fictitious.  Such  is  the  case  with  all 

^  Aids  to  Reflection,  Aphorism  XIV. 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       139 

notions  of  substitution,  transfer  of  moral  quali- 
ties, imputed  righteousness,  etc.,  when  they  are 
literally  taken.  Thus  we  see  the  necessity  of  con- 
sidering the  question  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
moral  personality.  Abstractions  are  illusory  and 
fictitious  ;  and  the  relations  of  things  are  incom- 
mensurable with  the  relations  of  persons. 

After  so  much  of  abstract  and  negative  criti- 
cism it  seems  well  to  remind  ourselves  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  atonement  as  fact  and  the 
atonement  as  theory.  We  still  believe  and  main- 
tain that  a  great  work  of  grace  has  been  wrought 
for  man  ;  that  the  Father  gave  the  Son  to  be  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  ;  that  the  Son  loved  us  and 
gave  himself  for  us ;  and  that  God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling"  the  world  unto  himself.  Neither  do  we 
desire  to  do  away  with  the  sacrificial  and  substi- 
tutional language  of  the  Scriptures,  which  will 
always  have  its  value  for  Christian  speech.  "  Rock 
of  Ages,  cleft  for  me."  "  0  Sacred  Head  now 
wounded."  "  0  Haupt  voU  Blut  und  Wunden." 
There  is  no  siofn  that  the  Church  will  ever  out- 
grow  this  speech.  But  there  is  need  that  we 
understand  this  speech  and  do  not  caricature  the 
vicarious  suffering  of  Divine  Love  by  turning  it 
into  the  vicarious  punishment  of  theological 
theory. 

Our  discussion,  then,  concerns  only  the  theory 


140  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

of  our  Lord's  redeeming  work,  and  here  we  find 
much  to  be  desired.  The  traditional  theories  have 
been  an  incongruous  compound  of  inconsistent 
speculation  and  halting  exegesis.  The  speculation 
was  never  rigorous,  but  was  helped  out  by  the  ex- 
egesis; and  the  exegesis  rested  on  the  fancy  that 
Scripture  language  is  that  of  dogma,  and  must 
be  interpreted  like  the  words  of  a  statute.  More- 
over, a  good  part  of  the  exegesis  consisted  in 
reading  the  Scriptures  in  the  light  of  the  tradi- 
tional dogma,  thus  often  reading  into  them  doc- 
trines undreamed  of  by  the  Scripture  writers  them- 
selves. A  sufficient  illustration  is  found  in  the 
fact  already  mentioned,  the  making  God's  love 
the  effect  of  the  atonement  instead  of  its  cause. 

The  total  result  was  something  about  equally 
obnoxious  to  reason  and  conscience  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  Scriptures  themselves  on  the 
other.  The  living  revelation  of  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  sancti- 
fying work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  illumine  the 
Scriptures,  was  replaced  by  frigid  juristic  specu- 
lations, lifeless  and  life-destroying,  the  despair  of 
reason  and  the  opprobrium  of  faith.  And  because 
of  the  failure  to  distinguish  between  the  fact  and 
the  theory  of  the  Saviour's  work,  these  specu- 
lations were  thought  to  be  the  gospel  itself.  The 
only  saving  feature  of  the  case  was  that,  in  spite 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       141 

of  these  obscuring  mists  of  theory,  the  love  of 
God  nevertheless  gleamed  through  the  words  of 
Scripture,  and  a  wholesome  moral  instinct  gener- 
ally prevented  the  theory  from  working  its  logical 
results.  The  same  moral  instinct  enforced  the  de- 
mand for  righteousness,  and  thus  supplemented 
the  most  grievous  lack  of  the  speculation.  Mean- 
while, and  on  the  other  hand,  the  critics  of  the 
traditional  theory  have  often  dissolved  away  both 
the  love  and  righteousness  of  God  into  a  hazy 
good-nature,  with  no  power  to  awe  or  to  attract. 
Both  extremes  are  about  equally  far  from  the 
truth. 

The  necessity  of  transferring  the  discussion  of 
this  doctrine  from  the  realm  of  juristic  abstrac- 
tions to  the  realm  of  life  and  conscience  has  al- 
ready appeared.  Many  hints  of  such  a  view  ap- 
pear in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  and  since  the  time 
of  Abelard  there  have  been  more  or  less  definite 
attempts  to  construe  the  atonement  as  a  moral 
process,  having  for  its  aim  less  the  canceling  of 
debts  supposed  to  be  due  to  justice  than  the  pos- 
itive lifting  of  men  into  the  life  of  righteousness. 
This  is  certainly  an  aspect  of  the  problem  which 
Christian  thought  will  never  again  consent  to  lose 
sight  of.  It  is  the  stone  which  the  traditional 
builders  have  commonly  rejected,  whereas  in  the 


142  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

gradual  moralizing  of  theology  which  Christian 
progress  is  bringing  about,  it  is  becoming  the 
head  of  the  corner.  We  have  now  to  consider 
whether  reflective  criticism  will  allow  us  to  rest  in 
this  view,  or  whether  it  must  go  along  with  the 
others. 

And,  first  of  all,  it  is  plain  that  we  must  not 
only  keep  clear  of  abstractions,  but  we  must  also 
discuss  the  question  with  regard  to  our  human  con- 
ditions. We  have  no  call  to  consider  the  relation 
of  abstract  government  to  abstract  subjects,  or 
what  might  be  demanded  in  the  government  of 
angels,  of  whose  nature  and  conditions  we  know 
nothing,  or  what  penalty  should  be  exacted  for 
disobedience  wrought  in  the  full  hght  of  know- 
ledge, and  because  of  pleasure  in  the  evil.  Dis- 
cussing the  subject  on  that  abstract  basis,  we 
should  most  probably  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  can  be  no  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  that  jus- 
tice could  never  rest  without  exacting  the  full 
penalty  from  the  sinner.  But  all  such  questions 
we  set  aside  ;  for  we  really  have  neither  the  men- 
tal nor  the  moral  insight  needed  for  such  dis- 
cussion. What  would  be  abstractly  just  in  general 
is  beyond  us ;  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  con- 
sidering concrete  cases.  The  atonement  seems 
intelhgible  only  in  connection  with  a  developing 
moral  world,  and  would  appear  to  be  inadmissible 
in  a  completely  developed  moral  order. 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   143 

Moreover,  our  human  life  is  not  lived  on  the 
abstract  plane  of  abstract  moral  agency.  It  is  a 
life  of  ignorance  and  weakness ;  a  life  of  crude 
beginnings  and  shadowy  incipiencies  ;  a  life  with- 
out insight  into  itself  and  without  foresight  of 
the  end ;  a  life  in  which  power  and  faculty  and 
knowledge  and  moral  sensibility  and  self-control 
have  to  be  developed  ;  a  hfe  rooted  in  the  animal 
out  of  which  we  only  slowly  and  by  much  trial 
and  error  emerge ;  a  life  largely  moulded  by 
heredity  and  environment,  and  solicited  by  temp- 
tations from  without  and  within,  from  above  and 
beneath  and  around.  Now,  the  application  of  ab- 
stract rectoral  and  forensic  notions  to  such  a 
life  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  in  the  case  of 
the  family.  Manifestly  the  only  possibility  of 
getting  any  conception  of  the  case  which  will  not 
revolt  the  moral  reason  lies  in  replacing  the  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  Governor  by  that  of  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  the  conception  of  the  di- 
vine government  by  that  of  the  divine  family.  If 
the  dearest  and  deepest  thought  of  God  be  that 
he  is  our  Father,  then  our  deepest  and  truest 
thought  of  his  dealings  with  us  must  be  deter- 
mined by  this  conception ;  and  all  other  concep- 
tions of  whatever  kind  that  will  not  harmonize 
with  this  must  be  cast  out.  Whatever  notions 
of  government  and  justice  we  may  form  must  be 


144  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

subordinated  to  the  thought  of  this  Divine  Father- 
hood of  which  every  other  fatherhood  in  heaven 
or  in  earth  is  named.  Instead,  then,  of  a  Divine 
Ruler  anxious  mainly  for  his  own  claims  and 
laws,  we  have  a  Divine  Father  in  the  midst  of  his 
human  family,  bearing  with  his  children  and 
seeking  by  all  the  discipline  of  love  and  law  to 
build  them  into  likeness  to  and  fellowship  with 
himself. 

The  primal  demand  for  the  economy  of  grace 
lies  in  the  form  and  nature  of  human  development. 
These  constitute  a  claim  for  fatherly  patience,  for- 
bearance, and  discipline.  There  could  be  no  more 
ghastly  travesty  of  justice  and  goodness  than 
any  abstract  forensic  procedure  would  offer.  The- 
ology, as  we  have  said,  long  echoed  the  political 
absolutism  of  the  time,  and  regarded  God  as  an 
irresponsible  ruler,  whereas,  from  an  ethical  point 
of  view,  he  is  the  most  deeply  obligated  being  in 
the  universe.  And  havino^  started  a  race  under 
human  conditions  he  is  bound  to  treat  it  in  accord- 
ance with  those  conditions.  God  is  bound  to  be 
the  great  Burden-bearer  of  our  world  because  of 
his  relations  to  men.  We  that  are  strong  ought 
to  bear  the  burdens  of  the  weak,  is  a  principle 
of  unlimited  application.  All  dealing  with  the 
moral  problem  of  humanity  must  regard  our  hu- 
man circumstances. 


INCAENATION  AND  ATONEMENT       145 

Further,  our  development  begins  on  a  submoral 
plane.  That  was  not  first  which  was  spiritual,  but 
that  which  was  animal  (psychical),  and  afterward 
that  which  was  spiritual.  Whatever  may  have  been 
true  of  the  first  man,  this  word  of  Paul's  is  true 
of  his  descendants ;  and  the  reported  performances 
of  even  the  first  man  would  not  seem  to  set  him 
very  high  in  the  scale  of  development.  By  conse- 
quence, sin  itself  in  many  of  its  aspects  is  a  relic 
of  the  animal  not  yet  outgrown,  a  resultant  of 
the  mechanism  of  appetite  and  impulse  and  reflex 
action  for  which  the  proper  inhibitions  are  not 
yet  developed ;  and  only  slowly  does  it  grow  into 
a  conciousness  of  itself  as  evil.  Thus  sin  is  born ; 
that  is,  human  beings  become  willful  and  selfish, 
and  wilHng  to  do  wrong.  This  may,  indeed,  go 
to  any  extreme  of  malignity,  but  it  would  be 
hysteria  to  regard  the  common  life  of  men  as 
rooting  in  a  conscious  choice  of  unrighteousness. 

Now,  given  sin  in  the  sense  defined,  what  is  to 
be  done?  As  said,  it  is  conceivable  that  there 
should  be  orders  of  being,  say  first-born  sons  of 
light,  with  whom  any  sin  would  be  fatal.  But  we 
need  not  concern  ourselves  about  them.  With  us 
human  beings  the  case  is  otherwise.  Unless  we 
suppose  God  to  have  made  the  world  in  the  dark, 
we  must  allow  that  he  foreknew  and  intended  to 
have  just  this  developing  human  world  with  its 


146  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

necessity  for  struggling  out  of  the  animal  into  the 
spiritual,  out  of  the  mechanical  into  the  free,  out 
of  the  selfish  into  the  loving,  out  of  the  earthly 
into  the  divine.  It  must  be  dealt  with,  therefore, 
under  the  law  of  development,  and  under  the  law 
of  love.  Hard-and-fast  laws,  mechanically  imposed 
and  mechanically  applied,  would  be  unspeakably 
absurd  or  unspeakably  unjust  in  such  an  order. 
Tendencies,  direction,  outcomes,  are  the  impor- 
tant thing;  and  judgment  must  come  not  at  the 
beginning  but  at  the  end. 

This  is  something  which  formal  ethics  finds 
difficult;  for  this  science  delights  in  categorical 
imperatives  and  abstract  relations,  and  finds  it 
hard  to  adjust  itself  to  a  moving  moral  world 
just  as  formal  logic  finds  it  hard  to  adjust  itself 
to  a  moving  physical  world.  In  both  cases,  how- 
ever, the  adjustment  has  to  be  made.  The  hu- 
man moral  world  does  not  exist  as  something  fixed 
and  complete ;  it  is  rather  becoming.  The  saints 
are  not  saved ;  they  are  being  saved.  The  where- 
abouts of  a  developing  being  is  not  so  important 
as  the  direction  of  his  movement ;  and  his  moral 
standing  depends  not  on  single  and  isolated  deeds, 
but  on  the  character  which  he  develops.  And  this 
admits  of  no  mechanical  and  quantitative  measure 
in  any  case. 

We  abandon,  then,  all  theories  of  an  abstract 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       147 

atonement  based  on  abstract  considerations  of  ab- 
stract moral  agents  and  abstract  transgression,  and 
confine  our  attention  to  tbe  concrete  and  living 
human  world.  Closet  theories  have  no  application 
or  value.  We  are  not  concerned  to  find  something 
which  might  be  consistent  as  an  abstract  ethical 
speculation,  but  something  which  will  commend 
itself  to  our  moral  reason  when  applied  to  this  im- 
perfect, developing,  ignorant,  and  sinful  human 
world.  Such  a  doctrine  must  be  sought  in  life  and 
experience  and  the  moral  personality. 

The  primal  attitude  of  God  toward  the  hu- 
man world,  we  have  said,  must  be  that  of  love  in 
all  the  manifold  expressions  which  our  human  life 
requires.  But  as  this  life  develops  into  the  moral 
form,  the  moral  nature  makes  its  demands.  It  is 
conceivable  that  God  should  have  made  a  world 
capable  only  of  sentient  and  non-moral  satisfac- 
tions. The  animal  world  seems  to  be  of  this  kind. 
In  such  a  world  it  suffices  to  furnish  the  condi- 
tions of  animal  development  and  comfort.  But  if  a 
moral  world  is  to  exist,  the  moral  nature  must  pre- 
scribe its  form  and  imperative  conditions.  And  one 
thing  on  which  the  moral  nature  is  categorical  and 
unyielding  is  that  moral  good  and  moral  evil  shall 
not  be  treated  alike.  It  would  be  the  overthrow 
of  the  moral  universe  to  hold  that  moral  evil  could 
ever  be  ignored  as  indifferent  or  treated  as  if  it 


148  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

were  good.  Now,  we  are  in  the  world  of  moral 
persons,  and  here  we  come  upon  a  real  moral  dif- 
ficulty which  demands  consideration,  one  which 
has  formed  the  real  strength  of  the  theories  of 
the  atonement  that  have  demanded  some  sort 
of  satisfaction  as  a  condition  of  forgiveness,  al- 
though they  failed  rightly  to  apprehend  the  na- 
ture of  the  demand. 

The  essential  moral  fact  in  this  matter  is  that 
if  God  is  to  forgive  unrighteous  men  some  way 
must  be  found  of  making  them  righteous.  This 
difficulty  is  not  forensic  but  moral.  It  does  not 
spring  from  rectoral  complications,  but  from  the 
moral  nature  itself.  To  forgive  wicked  men  while 
they  remain  wicked  would  be  immoral.  The  fun- 
damental problem  is  to  find  a  way  whereby  the 
righteous  God  can  make  righteous  the  ungodly ; 
and  this  cannot  be  secured  by  calling  or  declar- 
ing them  righteous,  but  only  by  a  spiritual  trans- 
formation. Some  dim  insio^ht  into  this  fact  under- 
lies  the  highly  obscure  traditional  conceptions  of 
the  relation  of  justification  to  regeneration;  and 
this  fact  misunderstood  has  been  the  real  strength 
of  the  demand  for  some  kind  of  satisfaction  as  a 
condition  of  forgiveness.  With  the  tendency  of 
uncritical  thought  to  mistake  distinctions  for  divi- 
sions, the  several  aspects  of  salvation  have  been 
made  into  separate  processes,  and  an  "order  of 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        149 

salvation  "  has  been  laid  down,  to  depart  from 
which  would  be  heresy.  Much  of  this  trouble 
arises  from  viewing  the  subject  from  the  judicial 
rather  than  the  moral  and  vital  standpoint.  From 
the  former,  penalties  are  externally  attached,  and 
might  be  externally  remitted;  but  from  the  latter, 
penalties  are  organically  connected  with  life  and 
conscience,  and  demand  regeneration  as  well  as 
absolution. 

The  problem,  then,  must  be  concretely  consid- 
ered, and  from  the  human  standpoint.  And  here, 
again,  in  order  not  to  lose  ourselves  in  abstrac- 
tions, we  must  recur  to  the  concrete  life  once 
more.  We  cannot  too  resolutely  keep  to  the 
world  of  actual  experience.  We  observe,  then, 
that  our  moral  life  is  not  something  going  on  in 
a  vacuum  by  itself  and  without  relation  to  the 
system  of  law  and  reality.  It  is  conceivable  that 
there  should  be  a  life  with  only  abstract  moral 
contents  and  adapted  to  an  abstract  moral  pro- 
bation. This  is  the  kind  of  life  which  the  abstract 
theorists  seem  to  have  in  mind  when  they  make 
theories  of  the  atonement.  But  our  life  is  alto- 
gether different.  It  roots  in  and  grows  out  of  the 
natural  life  of  sense  and  impulse  and  desire ;  and 
it  is  geared  throughout  with  the  world  of  natural 
law  and  uniform  sequence.  The  moral  life  ab- 
stractly considered  deals  only  with  will  and  mo- 


150  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

tive ;  but  the  moral  life  concretely  considered 
deals  with  the  whole  system  of  law  and  conse- 
quence besides.  And  the  concrete  moral  life  is 
the  only  reality  ;  and  its  aim  is  not  simply  to  be 
formally  good,  but  to  attain  unto  largeness  and 
richness  and  fullness  of  life  itself.  The  abstract 
moral  form  is  but  the  form ;  the  contents  are 
life,  ever  more  abundant  and  glad  and  blessed. 

This  order  of  law  and  consequence  exists  as  the 
foundation  of  our  life.  And  this  fact  compels  us 
to  transfer  the  whole  question  of  salvation  from 
the  realm  of  fictitious  forensic  abstractions  and 
barren  legalities  to  the  realm  of  living  natural 
and  moral  law.  It  is  not  a  question  of  courts,  but 
of  life ;  not  a  question  of  abstract  rules,  but  of 
the  solid  structure  of  reality.  We  have  not  to 
deal  with  arbitrary  enactments,  with  penalties 
arbitrarily  attached,  but  rather  with  constitutional 
law;  that  is,  with  law  wrought  into  the  consti- 
tution of  things,  and  executing  itself  with  the 
inevitability  of  gravitation.  Any  real  solution  of 
the  problem  must  be  sought  from  this  point  of 
view.  We  exchange,  then,  the  forensic  standpoint 
of  external  enactments  for  that  of  organic  law. 

And  this  fact  enables  us  to  make  another  distinc- 
tion of  great  importance  for  the  understanding  of 
this  matter  of  f  org^iveness  and  salvation.  The  moral 
life  is  now  seen  to  involve  two  elements :  relations 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   151 

of  will,  and  a  set  of  organic  consequences.  The 
two  interpenetrate,  but  are  nevertheless  distinct. 
The  former  represents  the  attitude  of  the  will; 
the  latter  is  independent  of  volition,  and  repre- 
sents the  stored-up  and  incarnated  outcome  of 
conduct  in  the  world  of  law.  The  existence  and 
continuity  of  this  order  of  law  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  any  rational  and  moral  system ;  and 
any  tenable  doctrine  of  forgiveness  must  be  ad- 
justed to  it. 

There  is  a  great  deal  in  this  order  of  conse- 
quence which  is  mysterious  to  us.  Why  the  con- 
sequences of  physical  wrong-doing  should  be 
what  they  are  is  quite  beyond  us.  The  special 
forms  and  intensity  of  discord  introduced  into 
our  faculties  by  sin,  the  peculiar  weakening  and 
depolarization  of  the  moral  nature  itself  resulting 
from  conscious  wickedness  —  all  these  points  are 
involved  in  great  obscurity.  We  must  believe, 
however,  that  they  are  no  random  effects,  but 
represent  the  moral  judgment  and  wisdom  of  the 
Almighty. 

We  now  return  to  the  question  of  forgiveness. 
In  the  personal  field  evil-doing  is  followed  by  the 
displacence  of  moral  beings,  whether  the  deed  be 
against  ourselves  or  others.  The  attitude  of  the 
moral  will  is  this  personal  displacence  toward  the 
offender.     Forgiveness  would  mean  the  removal 


152  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  this  displacence  and  the  restoration  of  the 
offender  to  harmonious  relations  of  will  a^ain. 
The  condition  of  such  forgiveness  would  be  true 
repentance,  that  is,  a  heartfelt  repudiation  and 
condemnation  of  the  deed,  and  a  purpose  to 
rectify  the  wrong  done  so  far  as  possible.  With 
God  and  man  alike  such  repentance  should  re- 
move personal  displacence  and  restore  the  of- 
fender to  harmonious  relations  of  will  with  the  one 
sinned  against.  There  is  nothing  now  in  the  atti- 
tude of  his  will  which  calls  for  condemnation. 
But  this  would  not  end  the  matter;  for  in  the 
other  field  of  law  and  outcome  forgfiveness  does 
not  cancel  consequences.  The  spendthrift  may 
be  forgiven,  but  his  property  is  gone.  The  abuse 
of  health  may  be  forgiven,  but  the  broken  con- 
stitution remains.  No  forgiveness,  no  pardon,  can 
recall  the  wasted  years,  or  bring  back  the  vanished 
opportunity,  or  make  the  past  never  to  have  been, 
or  escape  its  entail  of  evil.  Experience  gives  no 
hint  of  pardon  such  as  this. 

In  this  realm  of  constitutional  law  the  utmost 
we  may  hope  for  is  that  consequences  may  be 
eliminated  by  bringing  in  other  laws,  as  health 
eliminates  disease.  And  in  order  to  any  effective 
forgiveness  it  is  necessary  that  the  system  of  law 
shall  be  such  that  restorative  or  countervailing 
agencies  shall  exist  whereby  the  evil  tendency  may 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        153 

be  prevented  from  becoming  fatal,  or  from  con- 
tinuing forever.  As  provision  is  made  in  the  phy- 
sical system  for  restoring  equilibrium  when  the 
disturbance  is  not  too  great,  or  as  provision  is 
made  in  the  living  organism  for  the  elimination 
of  disease  within  certain  limits,  so  provision  must 
be  made  in  the  moral  system  for  moral  recovery. 
Otherwise  there  can  be  no  moral  system  under 
human  conditions.  Without  such  provision  the 
system  would  be  in  unstable  equilibrium,  and 
would  be  hopelessly  overthrown  at  the  first  dis- 
turbance of  its  balance.  In  a  forensic  system, 
where  penalty  is  externally  attached,  forgiveness 
might  end  the  matter,  but  in  an  organic  and  vital 
system  forgiveness  is  nothing  without  cure.  What 
would  the  forgiveness  of  a  self -induced  fever 
mean? 

We  have,  then,  an  unchangeable  system  of  law, 
not  forensic,  but  expressed  in  the  nature  of  things, 
as  the  precondition  of  any  moral  and  intelligible 
order.  And  this  system  must  be  looked  upon  as 
an  expression  of  the  divine  goodness  and  right- 
eousness; and  being  such,  it  must  be  without  va- 
riableness or  shadow  of  turning.  No  arbitrariness 
can  be  admitted  here.  Thus  we  come  in  sig-ht  of 
a  fixed  system  of  law  to  which  all  our  conceptions 
of  forgiveness  have  to  be  adjusted.  And  it  would 
be  more  tolerable  to  the  moral  nature  to  deny  out- 


154  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

right  the  possibility  of  forgiveness  than  to  allow 
this  system  to  be  tampered  with  in  such  a  way  as 
to  treat  good  and  evil  alike,  or  to  introduce  arbi- 
trariness into  the  divine  procedure. 

And  here  is  the  truth,  and  the  only  truth,  in 
the  traditional  philosophies  of  the  atonement,  the 
claim  that  sin  itself  can  never  be  treated  as  a  mat- 
ter of  indifference,  and  that  its  forgiveness  can 
never  be  a  subject  of  arbitrary  volition.  There  are 
moral  conditions  to  be  regarded  which  are  of  ab- 
solute obligation.  But  while  these  philosophies 
have  rightly  held  this  truth,  they  have  by  no  means 
succeeded  in  rationally  satisfying  the  demands  in 
question.  They  have  insisted  that  the  conse- 
quences of  sin  cannot  be  canceled  without  an 
atonement,  but  have  signally  failed  to  see  that 
they  are  not  canceled  even  with  an  atonement. 
Their  occupation  with  fictitious  forensic  conse- 
quences has  prevented  their  seeing  the  world  of 
concrete  consequences. 

An  opposite  error  of  the  sentimentalists  must 
be  noticed  at  this  point  as  resting  upon  the  same 
oversight  of  the  system  of  organic  consequences. 
We  might  well  fancy,  in  some  moment  of  moral 
deliquescence  or  of  half  vision,  that  there  ought 
to  be  absolute  forgiveness  upon  repentance,  with 
relaxation  of  all  penalty.  This  notion  would  root 
in  the  nervous  sensibility  rather  than  in  the  moral 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   155 

reason.  In  the  root  sense  of  the  word,  it  would 
be  pathological  rather  than  moral.  Its  plausibility 
rests  upon  oversight  of  the  distinction  between 
forgiveness  as  the  removal  of  personal  displacence, 
and  forgiveness  as  the  canceling  of  natural  or- 
ganic consequences.  The  sentimentalist  fails  to 
see  that  consequences  are  not  forgiven.  He  also 
fails  to  see  that  as  God's  laws  are  founded  in  love 
and  wisdom,  there  can  be  no  departure  from  them. 
There  are  conditions  for  everything  in  the  divine 
order,  and  a  road  to  every  place.  If  we  wish  the 
thing,  we  must  fulfdl  the  conditions.  If  we  would 
reach  the  place,  we  must  travel  the  road.  We 
shall  never  get  wheat  by  planting  weeds ;  and 
just  as  little  shall  we  reap  to  the  spirit  if  we  sow 
to  the  flesh.  Imagine  the  folly  of  one  who  should 
say,  "I  sowed  weeds,  but  I  expect  wheat;  for  I 
have  repented  since  then,  and  I  trust  I  shall  have 
wheat  when  the  time  comes."  Such  is  his  folly 
who  in  a  world  of  law  expects  to  reap  what  he 
has  not  sown,  or  to  escape  from  reaping  what  he 
has  sown.  It  is  God's  purpose  to  have  and  to  bless 
only  a  world  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  How- 
ever inconvenient  we  may  find  it,  and  however 
strong  our  desire  for  sport  may  be,  the  unright- 
eous must  come  to  grief ;  and  God  will  never  de- 
part from  his  moral  laws  to  make  it  otherwise. 
And  let  all  the  people  say.  Amen.  It  would  be 


156  STUDIES  EST  CHRISTIANITY 

insufferable  to  suppose  that  God,  having  de- 
sired a  holy  world  and  failed  to  reach  it,  should 
then  content  himself  with  making  the  unholy 
happy. 

Furthermore,  the  sentimentalist  conceives  re- 
pentance very  superficially.  In  fact,  true  repent- 
ance is  so  difficult  and  takes  such  deep  hold  on 
the  moral  nature  that  not  without  reason  is  re- 
pentance itself  spoken  of  as  the  gift  of  God. 
Mere  regret,  especially  in  the  face  of  penalty,  is 
not  moral  at  all ;  least  of  all  is  it  any  ground 
for  forgiveness.  The  fear  that  haunts  every 
thoughtful  mind  at  this  point  is,  that  there  will 
never  be  any  truly  moral  repentance.  The  sorrow 
of  the  world  is  easy  enough,  but  the  godly  sorrow 
that  worketh  a  change  of  mind  is  not  so  easy  nor 
so  common.  We  may  well  believe  that  true  re- 
pentance is  followed  by  forgiveness,  but  the  prob- 
lem how  to  produce  such  repentance  remains 
unsolved  ;  and  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  practi- 
cal difficulties  in  the  case. 

This  distinction  between  forgiveness  as  the  re- 
moval of  personal  displacence  and  forgiveness  as 
the  cancehng  of  natural  consequences  deserves 
emphasis ;  for  there  are  many  crude  and  immoral 
notions  in  popular  religious  thought  respecting 
what  forgiveness  does.  These  are  illustrated  by 
that  odious  fancy  which  one  often  comes  upon 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   157 

in  religious  circles,  that  the  best  adjustment  be- 
tween this  world  and  the  next  would  be  to  sin  as 
long  as  possible  and  repent  just  in  time  to  escape 
the  penalty.  Such  a  notion  has  no  warrant  in 
experience,  is  hateful  to  conscience,  and  is  most 
unseemly  in  the  face  of  unchanging  law ;  and 
one  holding  this  notion  should  consider  that  true 
repentance  is  thereby  made  impossible,  and  that 
forgiveness  does  not  cancel  consequences. 

Notions  of  this  kind  spring  from  the  abstract 
conception  of  the  atonement.  Sin  is  supposed  to 
constitute  an  abstract  debt  to  abstract  justice; 
and  this  debt  is  canceled  by  the  atonement.  The 
necessity  of  personal  righteousness  and  the  world 
of  inflexible  law  are  lost  sight  of ;  and  these  im- 
moral fancies  result.  But  they  vanish  forever 
when  we  view  the  subject  from  the  concrete,  eth- 
ical standpoint.  So  long  as  any  one  wishes  to  be 
saved  not  from  sin  but  from  the  penalty  of  sin 
there  can  be  no  salvation  for  him.  He  knows  nei- 
ther the  Scriptures  nor  the  moral  reason.  True 
salvation  is  from  sin,  not  from  penalty.  It  means 
deliverance  from  the  sinful  life  and  establishment 
in  the  life  of  active  righteousness,  which  is  the 
only  possible  condition  of  fellowship  with  the 
Holy  God.  Only  the  pure  in  heart  can  see  God 
or  have  fellowship  with  him.  Yet  so  inverted  are 
our  notions  on  this  matter  that  a  large  part  of 


158  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

religious  effort  seems  to  be  directed  to  saving 
men  from  hell  rather  than  from  sinning",  and  to 
getting  men  to  heaven  instead  of  recovering  them 
to  holiness  of  heart  and  life  —  a  frightful  heresy 
in  both  faith  and  practice.  It  is  even  to  be  sus- 
pected that  not  a  little  of  popular  zeal  for  the  tra- 
ditional views  of  the  atonement  rests  at  bottom  on 
the  secret  fancy  that  in  some  way  the  atonement 
enables  us  to  escape  the  stringent  necessity  of  per- 
sonal righteousness.  In  some  way  we  are  to  be 
"  let  off,"  and  Christ's  "finished  work"  is  to  pass 
as  a  substitute  for  our  own  effort.  In  that  case  it  is 
only  a  specification  of  the  general  mechanical  ten- 
dency in  religion,  whereby  men  seek  to  avoid  the 
narrow  way  of  spiritual  life.  Men  are  ready  to  be- 
lieve and  do  anything  which  promises  to  absolve 
them  from  girding  themselves  for  strenuous  and 
holy  living.  To  detect  the  presence  of  this  ten- 
dency in  this  matter  we  need  only  ask  ourselves 
what  we  really  desire  from  God.  Is  it  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  restoration  to  the  divine  favor,  and 
God's  help  in  holy  living?  All  of  this  is  provided 
for  by  the  gospel.  But  if  it  be  anything  else,  as 
escape  from  consequences  or  relaxation  of  moral 
demands,  we  are  using  the  grace  of  God  as  a 
cloak  for  iniquity  and  an  incitement  to  sin.  This 
is  the  heresy  of  heresies.  The  love  of  God,  like 
parental  love,  takes  the  will  for  the  deed,  bears 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   159 

with  weakness  and  imperfection,  avails  itself  of 
all  the  resources  of  discipline,  and  waits  for  de- 
velopment ;  but  if  any  one  regardeth  iniquity  in 
his  heart,  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him ;  and 
any  doctrine  to  the  contrary  is  a  heresy. 

The  sins  of  the  world,  then,  may  not  be  ignored ; 
neither  may  they  be  taken  away  by  mere  sover- 
eignty. The  problem  is  a  moral  one  and  must  re- 
ceive a  moral  solution.  And  the  solution  must  be 
sought  in  accordance  with  God's  fundamental 
purpose  in  our  human  world.  That  purpose  is  to 
have  a  family  of  spiritual  children,  made  in  his 
image  and  likeness,  who  shall  know  him  and  love 
him,  and  upon  whom  he  may  bestow  himself  in 
blessing  for  ever  and  ever.  And  the  method  of 
procedure  is  that  of  growth  and  development. 
There  are  animal  beginnings  with  moral  endings. 
Love  and  law  are  omnipresent  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  work;  and  judgment  is  possible  only 
at  the  end. 

God's  supreme  aim  is  to  secure  the  love  and 
obedience  and  sympathy  and  filial  confidence  of 
his  children.  On  the  human  side  the  response  is 
slow.  As  in  the  earthly  family,  there  is  a  long 
period  of  irresponsiveness,  ignorance,  willfulness, 
and  even  of  rebellion ;  and  as  the  earthly  father 
bears  with  this,  waits  for  development,  and  seeks 
by  all  the  resources  of  love  and  correction  and 


160  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

discipline  to  bring  the  child  to  the  filial  insight 
and  the  filial  spirit,  so  the  Heavenly  Father  bears 
with  his  children  and  seeks  to  bring  them  to  a 
recognition  of  his  presence  and  purpose  in  their 
lives,  and  to  a  filial  acceptance  of,  and  coopera- 
tion with,  his  purpose.  They  must  be  recovered 
from  their  willful  and  evil  ways,  from  their  dis- 
trust and  alienation  also,  and  given  power  to 
become  the  children  of  the  Highest.  Any  work 
which  did  not  secure  this,  which  left  men  in  their 
alienation  and  rebellion,  might  conceivably  satisfy 
a  fictitious  justice;  but  it  would  never  satisfy  the 
Father's  heart.  To  treat  men  as  righteous  when 
they  are  not  righteous  would  involve  the  deepest 
depths  of  mental  and  moral  confusion.  The  only 
effective  atonement  for  sin  must  consist  in  salva- 
tion from  sin  and  restoration  to  righteousness. 
Nothing  else  could  satisfy  God  or  man. 

How,  then,  are  the  sins  of  the  world  to  be 
taken  away?  This  question  in  a  forensic  sense 
we  dismiss  altogether  as  being  fictitious.  In  the 
practical  sense  the  meaning  is  better  expressed  in 
another  form:  How  are  ignorant,  weak,  willful, 
sinful  men  to  be  recovered  from  unrighteousness 
and  developed  into  the  life  of  God?  This  is  the 
real  problem  for  which  we  must  seek  a  concrete 
moral  solution.  Mere  power  can  do  nothing.  Mere 
volition  is  inadmissible.  It  is  either  a  moral  solu- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   161 

tion  or  none.  It  is  a  question  of  moral  goodness 
and  of  moral  dynamics  with  which  juristic  ab- 
stractions have  nothing  to  do. 

Here  comes  in  the  work  of  Christ  as  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  work  of  grace.  God's  supreme 
resource  must  lie  in  himself  and  in  the  revelation 
of  himself.  God  must  be  revealed  as  a  moral 
being  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  forever  sure 
both  his  love  and  his  holiness,  and  to  furnish  the 
supreme  incentive  to  repentance  and  righteous- 
ness and  love  on  the  part  of  men.  This  is  done 
by  the  incarnation  of  the  Divine  Son,  who  reveals 
the  heart  of  the  Father,  not  in  word  but  in  deed, 
so  that  God  is  manifest  in  the  flesh  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  And  in  the  fullness  of  his  devotion 
the  Divine  Son  enters  into  human  limitations, 
lives  the  perfect  life  before  men,  shows  God's 
thought  for  men,  comes  into  contact  with  our  sin 
also,  submits  to  its  outrage  and  violence,  and  be- 
comes obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross. 

Now,  two  things  are  forever  clear  for  all  who 
receive  this  faith  :  First,  that  God  will  never  de- 
part from  his  moral  laws  in  order  to  make  men 
happy  or  to  save  men  in  their  sins.  They  must 
be  saved  morally  if  saved  at  all.  Secondly,  the 
love  and  grace  of  God  are  set  on  high  forever ; 
and  now  every  one  that  thirsteth  may  take  of  the 


162  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

water  of  life.  This  is  the  specific  meaning  of  the 
Redeemer's  work.  It  was  not  a  fictitious  hag- 
gling with  abstract  and  fictitious  justice.  It  was 
Infinite  Love  Sfoingf  forth  to  seek  and  to  save  the 
lost.  It  was  the  father  of  the  prodigal  going  in 
search  of  his  boy.  It  was  the  Good  Shepherd 
giving  his  life  for  the  sheep  ;  not,  of  course,  at 
the  demand  of  justice,  but  at  the  instance  of  di- 
vine love.  This  is  the  true  vicariousness  of  love, 
of  sympathy,  of  the  living  moral  reason,  not  an 
abstract  and  fictitious  vicariousness  which  no  one 
can  understand  or  find  any  place  for  in  an  unso- 
phisticated conscience. 

Thus  the  righteousness  of  God  is  set  forth  and 
forever  demonstrated.  If  God  were  simply  a  being 
of  good  nature,  and  without  interest  in  the  right- 
eousness of  his  creatures,  he  could  easily  make 
them  happy  by  mere  power  and  at  no  cost  to 
himself  or  any  one  else.  This  is  the  sentimen- 
talist's notion  of  what  ought  to  be.  This  notion 
is  forever  vacated  by  the  cross  of  Christ.  God 
will  be  at  infinite  cost  to  save  men,  but  he  wiU 
save  them  morally  or  not  at  all.  It  is  a  moral 
world  in  which  we  live  ;  and  we  are  under  the 
inexorable  law  of  righteousness.  There  is  no  pro- 
vision made  for  relaxing  moral  demands,  or  for 
"  letting  sinners  off."  The  promised  land  is  only 
for  those  who  attain  unto  the  spirit  of  righteous- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        163 

ness.  The  willful  and  disobedient  may  wander  in 
the  desert  forever ;  they  cannot  enter  in.  The 
only  hope  for  sinners  consists  in  their  being  saved 
from  sinning,  and  in  being  recovered  from  their 
alienation  from  God  and  righteousness,  which  is 
the  essence  of  sin  and  perdition.  There  is  and 
can  be  no  other  salvation  which  the  moral  reason 
will  accept.  The  work  of  Christ,  as  thus  morally 
conceived,  demonstrates,  we  repeat,  the  righteous- 
ness of  God. 

And  not  only  is  the  righteous  God  thus  re- 
vealed, but  we  also  see  God's  great  method  for 
making  righteous  the  ungodly.  We  see  the  reve- 
lation of  righteousness,  and  we  also  see  divine 
love  in  divine  condescension  and  sacrifice  in  order 
to  win  men  from  unrighteousness  and  raise  them 
to  the  righteous  life,  to  do  away  with  their  es- 
trangement and  misunderstanding,  and  bring 
them  into  filial  fellowship  with  their  God  and 
Father.  This  is  the  great  meaning  of  the  work  of 
Christ.  In  this  way  the  righteousness  of  God  is 
declared,  and  the  just  God  becomes  the  justifier 
of  the  ungodly;  that  is,  the  righteous  God  helps 
the  ungodly  to  become  righteous.  Thus  God  was 
and  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  him- 
self. And  the  work  of  Christ  himself,  so  far  as  it 
was  an  historical  event,  must  be  viewed  not  merely 
as  a  piece  of  history,  but  also  as  a  manifestation 


164  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  that  cross  which  was  hidden  in  the  divine  love 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  which  is 
involved  in  the  existence  of  the  human  world  at 
all. 

And  is  this  all  there  is  in  the  atonement?  In 
reply,  we  say  we  no  longer  care  to  use  the  word 
atonement,  as  it  has  become  misleading  or  uncer- 
tain through  long  association  with  doubtful  theo- 
logical theories.  But  this  is  all  there  is  in  the  work 
of  Christ  to  which  we  can  give  articulate  and  ten- 
able expression.  If  any  one  chooses  or  feels  a  need 
for  something  more,  it  is  open  to  him  to  say  that 
there  are  back-lying  mysteries  in  the  divine  nature 
which  transcend  this  view.  To  this  we  should  have 
no  objection,  if  we  were  allowed  to  add  that  they 
also  transcend  all  the  traditional  views.  These 
transcendental  mysteries  cannot  be  expressed  in 
terms  of  the  satisfaction  and  substitution  theories 
without  contradicting  our  moral  reason.  They 
cannot  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  governmental 
theory  without  impressing  us  with  a  sense  of  fic- 
tion. As  we  have  before  pointed  out,  all  these 
views  oscillate  between  an  untenable  literalism  in 
exegesis  and  a  freer  interpretation  of  the  language 
of  Scripture.  Whoever  departs  from  any  of  these 
views  is  reproached  with  departing  from  the  teach- 
ings of  Scripture.  Thus  the  holder  of  the  govern- 
mental view  is  charged  with  ignoring  the  teach- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       165 

ings  of  the  word ;  and  he  in  turn  makes  the  same 
charge  upon  the  holder  of  the  moral  and  vital 
theory  of  the  atonement.  But  in  fact  this  only 
shows  their  failure  to  grasp  their  own  position. 
No  one  holds  to  a  strictly  literal  interpretation 
of  Scripture  language,  except  when  he  has  a  po- 
lemic on  hand,  or  wishes  to  make  a  charge  of 
heresy.  The  satisfaction  of  the  satisfactionist  is 
one  which  does  not  satisfy.  The  substitution  of 
the  substitutionist  is  one  which  does  not  sub- 
stitute. The  justice  of  the  rectoral  theory  is 
unlike  any  justice  recognized  by  the  unsophis- 
ticated moral  reason.  The  satisfaction  and  the 
substitution  and  the  justice  have  to  be  manip- 
ulated until  they  mean  what  they  may  be  allowed 
to  mean  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  theory, 
but  what  no  one  would  ever  think  they  meant 
who  relied  solely  on  the  ordinary  usage  of  lan- 
guage. 

It  is,  then,  open  to  any  one,  as  we  have  said,  to 
hold  that  there  are  back-lying  mysteries  in  the  di- 
vine nature  which  transcend  the  view  we  have  set 
forth.  Such  a  claim  would  be  quite  in  line  with 
our  own  insistence  on  the  relative  and  adumbra- 
tive character  of  all  our  thinking  on  things  divine. 
But  we  must  insist  also,  and  once  more,  that  these 
mysteries  equally  transcend  all  the  traditional 
views.  They  must  be  left  unexpressed,  therefore, 


166  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

beyond  the  point  to  which  the  view  set  forth 
carries  us;  and  in  any  case  this  view  must  be 
included  in  any  theory  of  the  subject.  It  may  be 
inadequate,  but  it  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes.  What- 
ever we  may  believe  concerning  superethical  ne- 
cessities in  the  case,  they  will  never  justify  us  in 
contradicting  ethics.  Theology  may  conceivably 
transcend  the  intuitions  of  conscience,  but  it  may 
never  contradict  the  enli<jhtened  conscience.  The 
doctrine  of  the  atonement,  then,  must  lie  at  least 
partially  in  the  moral  field,  and  all  of  it  must  be 
harmonious  with  the  moral  reason.  No  conception 
of  God  in  this  matter  will  do  which  puts  him  be- 
low the  moral  heroes  of  humanity,  and  even  below 
the  daily  self-sacrifice  of  the  family.  No  theory 
will  do  which  views  God  as  without  obligation, 
or  as  needing  propitiation,  or  as  being  pro- 
pitiated by  a  quantum  of  suffering.  No  abstract 
theory  of  the  relation  of  abstract  attributes,  re- 
sulting in  an  abstract  righteousness  which  leaves 
the  living  man  as  unrighteous  as  ever,  with  the 
necessity  on  the  part  of  God  either  of  letting 
man  fall  helplessly  back  into  unrighteousness 
or  of  treating  men  as  righteous  when  they  are 
not  —  no  such  theory  will  longer  command  the 
thought  and  conscience  of  men;  and  for  the 
sufficient  reason  that  every  such  theory  is  at 
bottom  irrational  and  immoral. 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        167 

It  must  be  noted,  too,  that  the  conception  set 
forth  has  become  practically  the  working  view  of 
the  Church,  so  far  as  it  is  alive.  We  have  come  to 
see  that  the  important  thing  is  to  save  men  from 
sin,  and  we  are  sure  that  consequences  will  take 
care  of  themselves  if  this  can  be  done.  And  in 
doing  this  we  fall  back  on  Christ's  revelation  of 
the  Father,  on  his  summons  to  repentance  and 
discipleship  and  his  promises  of  forgiveness  and 
divine  renewal. 

And  if  one  should  say,  "  Well,  if  that  is  all ; 
if  the  sole  work  of  Christ  was  to  reveal  the  Father 
and  bring  men  to  God,  what  need  was  there  for 
his  life  and  sufferinos  and  death?"  the  answer 
would  be:  How  otherwise  could  the  Father  be 
effectively  and  dynamically  revealed  ?  Love  is 
poorly  revealed  in  words ;  it  demands  deeds  for 
its  true  revelation.  No  proclamation  of  words, 
though  attended  by  never  so  many  miracles,  no 
writing  spread  across  the  sky,  could  make  any 
such  living  revelation  of  God  and  his  character 
as  is  made  in  the  incarnation  and  life  of  our  Lord. 
And  the  revelation  which  he  made  derives  its  deep 
significance,  not  from  what  he  said,  nor  from  what 
he  did,  but  from  what  he  was.  The  incarnation 
is  the  central  truth  of  Christianity  ;  and  the  incar- 
nation is  the  essential  fact  of  the  atonement.  But 
instead  of  saying  that  this  is  all  there  is  in  the 


168  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

work  of  Christ,  we  should  rather  say,  All  this  is 
in  the  work  of  Christ.  And  where,  in  earth  or  in 
heaven,  is  there  anything  great  besides? 

But  where  are  our  sins  in  the  mean  time?  All 
that  has  been  said  at  best  seems  to  point  only  to 
the  possibility  of  reformation,  and  does  not  look 
to  the  atonement  for  our  past  sins ;  yet  this  is 
the  most  important  matter  of  all.  This  difficulty 
is  partly  fictitious,  and  in  so  far  results  from  con- 
sidering the  subject  from  an  abstract  forensic 
standpoint.  The  law  claims  our  perfect  obedience 
at  all  times,  it  is  said  ;  and  hence  no  later  obedi- 
ence can  possibly  atone  for  earlier  disobedience. 
This,  then,  must  always  remain  against  us  on 
the  books  of  justice.  How  artificial  all  this  is  ap- 
pears when  we  apply  it  to  the  case  of  the  family. 
The  father  of  the  prodigal  son,  for  instance,  did 
not,  after  the  feast  was  over,  distress  himself 
about  the  debt  of  filial  duty  which  remained 
unpaid.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  the  Father  in 
heaven  will  not  unduly  concern  himself  about 
the  debt  of  the  past  when  his  prodigals  return  to 
their  Father's  house.  To  entertain  such  a  notion 
is  to  leave  the  category  of  moral  persons  for  that 
of  things  again.  Love  has  no  difficulty  with  the 
problem  and  only  love  can  solve  it. 

But  still,  we  may  say,  there  is  a  debt  which  re- 
mains even  after  forgiveness.  This  is  true.  Some- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        169 

thing  indeed  remains,  but  it  is  not  well  conceived 
as  a  debt  to  be  paid  in  any  commercial  sense.  It 
would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  sinners,  rather 
than  sins,  are  forgiven.  It  is  inverted  and  me- 
chanical to  fix  our  thought  on  the  sin  instead  of 
the  sinner.  Nothing  would  be  gained  if  all  sins 
were  forgiven  and  the  evil  will  remained.  This 
recalls  our  distinction  between  the  moral  dlspla- 
cence  which  must  be  visited  upon  the  evil  will 
and  the  natural  consequences  which  result  from 
its  indulgence.  The  forgiveness  of  the  sinner  in- 
volves the  removal  of  the  former,  but  not  of  the 
latter.  They  are  never  forgiven  so  far  as  experi- 
ence shows,  and  never  ought  to  be  forgiven.  Of 
course,  they  do  not  remain  as  a  set  of  legal  and 
forensic  liabilities;  but  they  remain  as  effects  in 
a  system  of  natural  law.  They  can  only  be  elim- 
inated, as  we  have  said,  by  bringing  restorative 
influences  into  play.  When  the  moral  displacence 
of  the  Holy  God  is  removed  in  the  case  of  the 
repentant  sinner,  a  great  deal  of  work  still  re- 
mains to  be  done  with  reference  to  the  past. 
And  God  presents  himself  as  ready  to  cooperate 
with  the  sinner  in  working  out  a  better  future 
which  shall  in  some  measure  undo  the  past  and 
cut  off  its  entail  of  evil.  The  utmost  we  can  hope 
for  is,  that  the  system  may  be  so  ordered  as  to  pro- 
vide for  recovery,  and  for  our  undoing  or  elim- 


170  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

inating  the  wrong  and  mischief  that  have  gone 
forth  from  us.  And  this  we  ought  supremely  to 
desire.  What  sort  of  a  moral  being  would  he 
be  who  could  rest  content,  even  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  if  he  knew  there  was  anywhere  any  one 
suffering  a  hard  and  bitter  lot  because  of  his  evil- 
doing?  And  what  sort  of  a  moral  being  would  he 
be  whose  deepest  desire  was  not  to  have  a  chance 
anywhere  and  anyhow  to  remedy  every  evil  which 
had  gone  forth  from  him  ?  Any  permissible  doc- 
trine of  forg-iveness  must  be  construed  in  ac- 
cordance  with  these  considerations.  Otherwise, 
forgiveness  itself  becomes  immoral,  and  the  desire 
for  forgiveness  becomes  an  expression  of  that 
very  selfishness  which  Christ  came  to  destroy. 

Am  I,  then,  never  to  get  clear  of  my  past? 
That  depends  on  the  meaning.  Through  the  grace 
and  gracious  help  of  God  I  may  get  clear  of  the 
sinful  life  and  emerge  into  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
The  healing  and  restoring  resources  of  God  are 
great,  and  thus  I  may  hope  at  last  to  remove  the 
scars  and  undo  the  evil.  But  that  the  past  should 
be  made  nonexistent,  or  memory  blotted  out,  or 
the  entail  of  consequences  arbitrarily  cut  off,  this 
is  not  to  be  hoped  for,  because  it  ought  not  to  be. 
We  can  make  new  departures,  but  we  must  start 
from  where  we  are.  We  can  begin  again,  but 
never  at  the  beginning.  The  past  always  has  a 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       171 

mortofag-e  on  the  future.  This  is  self-evident  as 
soon  as  we  transfer  the  problem  from  the  realm 
of  fictitious  or  abstract  forensic  claims  to  the 
concrete  world  of  organic  law  and  consequence. 
And  as  this  is  the  real  world,  we  must  adjust  our 
theories  and  our  hopes  to  it.  Certainly,  as  we 
have  said  before,  visible  and  experienced  conse- 
quences are  not  forgiven ;  how,  then,  can  we 
claim  that  any  consequences  will  be  forgiven, 
except  in  the  sense  of  overcoming  and  eliminat- 
ing them?  Long,  long  regret  must  haunt  many 
a  forgiven  soul;  and  there  are  sins  against  love 
and  trust  so  dark  and  base  that  only  the  sight  of 
him  of  the  pierced  hands  and  the  bleeding  side 
persuades  us  they  ever  can  be  forgiven.  Paul 
remembered  his  persecution  of  the  Church  unto 
the  end  of  his  life,  calling  himself  the  chief  of 
sinners  on  that  account,  and  saying  that  he 
obtained  mercy  because  he  did  it  ignorantly  in 
unbelief. 

We  reach  then  the  following  conclusions:  All 
thought  of  literal  substitution,  satisfaction,  pay- 
ment of  debt  is  morally  impossible.  Forensic  and 
governmental  difficulties  are  fictitious  except  as 
modes  of  expression.  Abstractions  throw  no  light 
upon  the  real  problem.  The  venue  must  be 
changed  from  supposed  enactments  to  natural 
laws;  and  from  the  evolutional  form  of  the  moral 


172  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

life  judgment  must  be  put  at  the  end  and  not  at 
the  beginning.  Then  every  one  goes  to  his  own 
place,  to  the  place  which  he  has  chosen,  and  for 
which  he  has  fitted  himself.  In  this  matter,  also, 
there  can  be  no  arbitrary  volition.  What  the 
eternal  moral  reason  prescribes,  that  is  what  must 
finally  be.  Some  of  the  earlier  theorizers  about 
justice,  meaning  thereby  the  moral  reason,  were 
not  so  much  wrong  in  their  contention  as  to  its 
inexorable  demands,  as  they  were  in  ignoring 
the  fact  of  development  and  putting  the  demand 
at  the  wrono-  end.  Meanwhile  God  has  revealed 
himself  in  his  Son  as  our  Father,  as  bearing  us 
upon  his  heart,  and  as  supremely  desirous  of 
saving"  us  from  the  sinful  life  which  must  end 
in  death  if  persisted  in,  and  recovering  us  to 
righteousness  and  the  filial  spirit.  For  this  the 
Divine  Son  has  given  himself;  for  this  the  Holy 
Spirit  came  and  comes;  and  the  work  of  both 
the  Son  and  the  Spirit  roots  in  the  Father's  love. 
But  in  all  this  the  aim  is  not  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  justice,  nor  yet  to  save  men  from 
penalty,  but  to  save  men  from  sinning,  to  lift 
them  Godward,  and  to  bring  them  to  that  spirit- 
ual attitude  which  will  make  it  possible  for  God 
to  bestow  himself  upon  them  in  infinite  and  eter- 
nal blessing.  As  we  have  so  often  said,  it  is  not 
a  problem  in  forensic  technicalities,  but  in  spirit- 
ual dynamics. 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       173 

Now,  what  shall  we  call  this  view  ?  It  is  really 
no  matter  what  we  call  it,  provided  the  thing  be 
understood  ;  but  the  proper  title  is  the  moral  view  ; 
that  is,  the  view  which  seeks  to  understand  the 
Saviour's  work  by  the  principles  and  analogies 
of  the  ethical  realm  rather  than  by  those  of  the 
governmental  and  juristic  realm.  There  is  consid- 
erable criticism  of  what  is  called  the  "  moral-in- 
fluence theory  "  of  the  atonement  scattered  about 
in  theological  treatises,  but  it  is  superficial  and 
unsatisfactory.  The  title  itself  is  a  bad  one,  as 
failing  to  suggest  the  eternal  love  and  eternal 
working  which  underlie  the  life  and  salvation  of 
men,  and  of  which  the  earthly  work  of  the  Re- 
deemer is  only  a  part  and  as  it  were  a  sample. 
The  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work,  is  as 
valid  now  as  when  it  was  first  uttered.  No  theory 
which  exhausts  itself  in  anything  so  impersonal 
as  an  "  influence  "  or  an  "  example  "  will  be  very 
effective.  But  the  title  and  the  criticism  alike  fail 
to  grasp  or  express  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the 
true  moral  theory. 

In  the  work  of  Christ  the  love  and  righteous- 
ness of  God  find  their  supreme  revelation.  Here 
we  have  the  final  illustration  and  demonstration 
of  what  God  is  and  what  he  means  for  men.  But 
here  again  it  is  easy  for  us  to  fall  back  once  more 
into  mechanical  and  juridical  thinking.  We  may 


174  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

think  of  a  store  of  merit  acquired  for  men,  in 
which  they  are  to  share,  so  that  nothing  now  re- 
mains but  to  bestow  this  merit  upon  men,  puz- 
zHng  ourselves  meanwhile  how  the  bestowment  is 
made,  and  how  it  is  conferred  upon  infants  and 
imbeciles,  and  invincible  ignorance,  and  those  who 
never  had  a  chance.  The  attempt  to  answer  these 
questions  has  led  to  some  highly  artificial  fancies 
and  some  very  doubtful  inferences.  First  of  all, 
we  have  the  mechanical  or  magical  application  of 
this  merit  through  the  performance  of  some  rite 
or  utterance  of  some  formula.  Or  we  have  a 
highly  artificial  scheme  for  saving  the  babies  from 
the  wrath  of  God  and  making  them  sharers  in  the 
benefits  of  the  atonement.  Or  we  have  a  set  of 
doubtful  inferences  concerning  future  probation 
and  what  will  take  place  there.  Such  notions  are 
mainly  mechanical  solutions  of  mechanical  diffi- 
culties generated  by  mechanical  thinking ;  and 
they  disappear  when  we  think  of  the  love  of  God 
and  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  remember 
that  it  is  this  God  and  this  Saviour  with  whom 
we  have  to  do.  We  need  no  theory  to  assure  us 
that  our  race  in  all  its  members  is  safe  in  their 
hands.  Jesus'  revelation  of  the  Father  puts  this 
beyond  doubt  forever,  and  we  must  not  allow 
mechanical  theorizers  to  obscure  the  fact. 

In  this  ethical  and  spiritual  way  the  work  of 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       175 

Christ  which  we  call  the  atonement  is  to  be  un- 
derstood. However  much  more  we  may  put  into 
it,  in  the  way  of  ineffable  mysteries,  the  features 
dwelt  upon  must  not  be  left  out.  As  an  intel- 
ligible working  theory  they  must  form  the  gist 
of  the  doctrine.  We  must  take  the  work  of  grace 
as  a  whole,  and  must  note  that  its  essential  aim 
is  to  save  men  from  sinning  and  to  lift  them  into 
the  life  of  the  Spirit.  With  this  understanding, 
we  may  retain  the  traditional  language  as  a  mode 
of  expression,  or  as  much  of  it  as  is  adapted  to 
modern  Christian  thought ;  but  we  must  not  turn 
it  into  a  theological  theory.  This  is  the  letter  that 
has  killed,  and  still  killeth.  We  must  also  note 
that  in  the  better  view  the  divine  love  is  not  de- 
nied or  diminished,  but  rather  freed  from  obscur- 
ing misconceptions.  Again,  we  must  note  that 
the  way  of  life  is  the  same  it  always  has  been. 
We  must  repent  and  forsake  our  sins,  and  become 
the  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  if  we  would  enter 
into  life.  He  is  still  our  Redeemer  and  the  way 
by  which  we  come  to  God.  Whatever  mystery 
there  may  be  in  the  Saviour's  work,  trust  and 
discipleship  are  all  that  is  needed  for  securing 
its  benefits.  This  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  our 
preaching.  Neither  philosophy  nor  theology  can 
save  us.  We  must  proclaim  the  love  of  God  the 
Father,  the  gracious  work  of  Christ  the  Son,  the 


176  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

forgiveness  of  sins,  and  the  sanctifying  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  which  Christ  has  made  known; 
and  we  must  summon  men  to  discipleship  and 
obedience  in  his  name.  To  do  this  is  to  preach 
the  atonement  in  its  practical  significance,  and  to 
escape  the  intellectual  and  moral  scandals  with 
which  theory  has  long  burdened  it. 

These  abstract  and  mechanical  conceptions  of 
the  atonement  have  led  to  correspondingly  ab- 
stract and  mechanical  conceptions  of  the  closely 
allied  topics  of  salvation  and  faith,  and  especially 
of  salvation  by  faith.  For  the  full  clearing  up  of 
our  thought,  it  seems  well  to  consider  these  sub- 
jects also,  in  the  hope  of  reaching  a  concrete  moral 
conception  in  line  with  our  previous  study  and  in 
harmony  with  the  moral  reason. 

Grace,  not  faith,  is  the  deepest  factor  in  our 
salvation.  It  is  the  grace  of  God  on  which  every- 
thing else  depends,  and  which  gives  value  to 
everything  else.  Hence  the  formula  given  by  St. 
Paul, "  By  grace  are  ye  saved,  through  faith."  Here 
grace  is  made  fundamental,  and  faith  is  only  in- 
strumental or  conditional.  The  salvation  is  not  of 
ourselves ;  it  is  the  gift  of  God.  It  is  not  of  our 
good  and  meritorious  works,  lest  any  man  should 
boast.  Grace,  then,  is  the  source  of  our  salvation, 
and  by  faith  we  enter  into  it.  This  is  a  wholesome 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       177 

doctrine  and  very  full  of  comfort ;  but  this  doc- 
trine also,  when  mechanically  understood,  may 
become  an  intellectual  and  moral  scandal. 

First  of  all,  it  is  clear  that  all  finite  beings, 
even  the  first-born  sons  of  light,  stand  only  in  the 
grace  of  God.  They  have  nothing  which  has  not 
been  given  them  ;  they  depend  continuously  upon 
God  for  their  life  and  all  their  powers ;  and  if 
they  should  estimate  their  value  to  God  from  the 
low  standpoint  of  quantitative  profit  and  loss, 
they  could  only  say,  "  We  are  unprofitable  ser- 
vants." And  that  which  is  true  of  the  first-born 
sons  of  liofht  is  truer  still  of  the  children  of  men. 
If  we  had  kept  all  the  commandments,  we  should 
still  be  unprofitable  servants.  And  when  to  this 
we  add  our  record  of  unfaithfulness,  wayward- 
ness, wickedness,  we  see  that  we  are  not  only  un- 
profitable servants,  but  sinners  also,  whose  only 
hope  must  lie  in  the  divine  grace. 

Any  value,  then,  which  the  world  of  finite  spirits 
may  have  depends  primarily  and  essentially,  not 
on  the  merit  and  worth  of  their  service,  but  on 
the  divine  love,  in  which  they  live  and  move  and 
have  their  being.  All  we  can  do  is  to  love  and 
trust  and  obey  ;  and  the  love  of  God  does  all  the 
rest.  It  takes  the  will  for  the  deed,  and  finds  the 
sufficient  service  in  love  itself. 

Such  a  relation  is  quite  unintelligible  on  the 


178  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

plane  o£  profit  and  loss,  when  coarsely  estimated 
by  the  standard  of  things;  but  we  understand 
it  readily  from  the  side  of  the  family  life.  Profit 
and  loss  have  no  place  here,  but  only  the  incom- 
mensurable relation  of  parental  and  filial  love. 
A  father  does  not  value  his  child  for  what 
he  can  make  out  of  it  considered  as  a  financial 
investment  or  speculation  ;  he  values  it  as  his 
child.  We  are  struck  with  horror  and  filled  with 
indignation  when  we  see  the  parental  relation 
degraded  to  the  level  of  pecuniary  standards.  And 
the  child,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  have  its 
standing  in  the  family  because  of  the  money 
value  of  its  services,  but  because  it  is  a  child.  It 
belongs  to  the  family,  and  its  great  value  is  de- 
termined by  its  relation  to  parental  affection.  It 
is  saved  by  love,  not  by  works.  And  that  which 
parental  love  supremely  demands  is  filial  love  in 
return.  The  child  may  show  forth  the  filial  spirit 
and  live  in  answering  affection,  and  parental  love 
does  all  the  rest.  Nothing  could  be  more  odious 
than  this  relation  when  measured  by  pecuniary 
standards  —  a  father  wondering  whether  he  will 
ever  get  back  the  money  spent  on  the  child,  and 
a  child  unwilling  to  do  anything  unless  it  be  paid; 
but  nothing  is  more  beautiful  when  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  love.  Then  parental  love  takes  the 
■will  for  the  deed,  and  thus  gives  all  its  value  to 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   179 

the  child's  imperfect  service ;  and  then,  in  turn, 
finds  in  the  answering  fiHal  love  its  own  supreme 
and  exceeding  great  reward. 

This  is  the  general  form  in  which  we  must 
conceive  the  relation  of  God  to  all  created  spirits. 
Infinite  love  bestows,  and  finite  love  answers 
back.  This  relation  is  caricatured  or  degraded  as 
soon  as  the  element  of  profit  and  loss  is  intro- 
duced into  it.  The  finite  may  never  boast,  for  it 
receives  everything  from  God.  And  the  gifts  of 
God  are  not  rewards  of  merit,  but  expressions  of 
fatherly  affection. 

And  this  which  is  true  even  of  the  hig-hest 
orders  of  created  spirits  is  preeminently  true  of 
men.  For,  as  we  have  before  pointed  out,  our 
life  is  one  of  development.  It  is  not  a  conscious 
moral  life  from  the  start,  but  a  sub-moral,  sub- 
rational,  even  animal  life,  which  is  to  develop 
into  moral  and  spiritual  forms.  The  individual 
in  his  personal  life  develops  slowly  into  intelli- 
gence, knowledge,  and  self-control;  and  the  social 
development,  which  has  such  significance  for  the 
mental  and  moral  life  of  the  individual,  is  an 
age-long  process.  Account  has  to  be  taken  of 
both  orders  of  development  in  estimating  the 
moral  life  of  men.  And  in  this  upward  movement, 
as  in  the  family,  there  are  long  periods  of  irre- 
sponsiveness,  ignorance,  waywardness,  thought- 


180  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

lessness,  with  which  love  must  bear,  and  out  of 
which  love  must  seek  to  bring  its  objects  by  all 
its  resources  of  discipline  and  law  and  chastise- 
ment and  self -revelation.  And  throughout  this 
process  men  manifestly  stand,  not  in  the  value  of 
their  works,  but  in  the  great  love  wherewith  God 
has  loved  them.  To  boast  of  their  merits  would 
be  like  an  infant  declaiming  on  the  value  of  its 
services,  or  a  learner  of  the  alphabet  priding 
himself  on  the  greatness  of  his  knowledge. 

If  there  be  any  salvation,  then,  it  must  neces- 
sarily be  of  grace  and  not  of  debt.  But  salvation 
itself  has  often  been  mechanically,  and  even 
magically,  conceived.  The  juristic  and  abstract 
conception  of  the  atonement  has  led  to  a  cor- 
responding conception  of  salvation  which  still 
haunts  much  of  our  thinking.  The  divine  law  is 
supposed  to  have  a  claim  upon  the  individual  or 
the  whole  race.  This  claim  stands  unsatisfied  in 
the  court  of  divine  justice,  much  as  a  judgment 
stands  on  the  books  of  an  earthly  court;  and 
salvation  consists  in  the  satisfaction  and  cancel- 
lation of  this  claim.  But  Christian  thought  is 
fast  outgrowing  this  conception  of  a  legal  and 
forensic  relation,  and  replacing  it  by  the  thought 
of  a  vital,  personal,  and  moral  relation.  The  ideal 
relation  between  God  and  man  is  love  from  God 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   181 

above,  and  answering  love  and  trust  and  obedi- 
ence from  man  below.  And  if  this  relation  does 
not  exist  or  has  been  disturbed,  man  is  so  far 
forth  lost.  And  the  establishment  or  restoration 
of  this  relation  is  salvation.  It  is  not  a  thing  of 
abstract  forensic  or  judicial  character  which  may 
be  mechanically  secured,  but  a  personal  and  moral 
relation.  Its  essence  consists  in  the  development 
or  restoration  of  the  filial  spirit,  the  subordination 
of  our  lives  to  the  will  of  God,  the  loving  recog- 
nition of  God's  loving  will  and  presence  in  our 
lives.  Any  salvation  which  comes  short  of  this  is 
an  abstract  and  non-moral  thing  which  could 
satisfy  neither  God  nor  man. 

The  failure  to  grasp  this  fact  of  the  moral  na- 
ture and  aim  of  salvation  has  led  to  a  great  many 
abstract  or  mechanical  schemes.  To  begin  with, 
the  atonement  was  conceived  as  having  furnished 
a  satisfaction  for  sin,  absolute  or  conditional ;  and 
individual  salvation  consisted  in  securing  the  ju- 
ristic advantages  of  a  share  in  this  satisfaction. 
Or,  and  this  was  the  more  common  conception  of 
the  matter,  the  atonement  was  conceived  as  hav- 
ing furnished  a  store  of  merit  or  righteousness 
which  might  be  applied  to  the  extinction  of  our 
demerit  or  unrighteousness  ;  and  individual  salva- 
tion consists  in  having  a  due  share  of  this  merit 
transferred  to  the  individual  account. 


182  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

With  this  mechanical  conception  of  the  atone- 
ment and  of  salvation,  it  was  only  natural  that 
correspondingly  mechanical  conceptions  of  the 
mode  of  securing  salvation  should  arise.  As  sal- 
vation did  not  involve  the  personal  love  and  loy- 
alty of  the  spirit,  but  was  only  a  quantitative 
balancing  of  claims  in  a  court  of  abstract  justice, 
it  was  entirely  credible  that  it  might  be  secured 
by  almost  any  sort  of  mechanical  rites  or  cere- 
monies performed  by  us,  or  for  us  or  upon  us. 
Hence  arose  the  scheme  of  sacerdotal  proxyism, 
sacramentalism,  and  religious  mechanism  in  gen- 
eral. The  priest  had  mystical  powers  and  the  keys 
of  heaven  and  hell.  The  sacraments  were  made 
saving  ordinances,  thus  degenerating  from  a  beau- 
tiful symbolism  to  the  level  of  magical  incantations. 
Then  men  betook  themselves  to  meats  and  drinks 
and  divers  washings  and  carnal  ordinances,  to 
all  manner  of  external  rites  and  ceremonies  and 
mechanical  exercises,  and  supposed  that  their  due 
performance  would  secure  salvation.  And  this 
was  entirely  logical.  Salvation  itself  being  exter- 
nal and  mechanical,  it  might  well  be  mechanically 
secured.  Thus  spiritual  religion  lost  itself  in  un- 
spiritual  exercises  which  hid  God  from  men,  and 
kept  men  from  God.  From  these  aberrations 
Christian  thought  is  returning  only  as  it  discovers 
the  spiritual  nature  of  salvation  and  the  worth- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        183 

lessness  of  mechanism  and  proxies  of  whatever 
kind. 


That  salvation  must  be  of  grace  is  manifest. 
We  have  now  to  consider  the  meaning  and  func- 
tion of  faith  in  the  matter. 

The  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  has  played 
a  great  part  in  Christian  history;  and  it  is  not 
entirely  intelligible  apart  from  the  history.  What 
gave  it  such  epochal  significance  at  the  time  of 
the  Protestant  Reformation  was  the  errors  against 
which  it  protested.  The  mechanical  and  external 
development  of  religion  in  the  Christian  Church 
had  reached  its  climax  at  that  time.  The  system 
of  rites  and  ceremonies,  of  fasts  and  penances, 
which  began  innocently  enough,  had  become  a 
yoke  which  the  people  were  unable  to  bear.  The 
priestly  class  also  claimed  to  have  the  keys  of 
heaven  and  hell,  and  by  this  means  was  enabled 
to  exercise  a  dreadful  tyranny  over  the  minds  of 
men.  The  system  of  indulgences  debauched  the 
Christian  conscience,  and  purgatory  with  its 
allied  doctrines  made  it  possible  to  keep  the 
living  in  abject  terror  concerning  the  dead.  Good 
works,  too,  were  largely  mechanically  conceived, 
and  as  such  were  without  any  spiritual  character. 
Against  all  this  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith  was  a  revolt.  It  proclaimed  the  worthless- 


184  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

ness  of  good  works,  and  good  works  of  the  kind 
meant  were  worthless.  Salvation,  then,  was  not 
of  works,  but  of  God's  grace  through  faith. 

The  doctrine  also  equally  meant  the  direct 
access  of  the  soul  to  God.  No  man  or  set  of  men 
or  institution  has  the  keys  of  heaven  or  hell. 
The  moral  relation  between  God  and  the  soul  is 
purely  personal,  and  no  third  party  may  inter- 
fere. This  doctrine  meant  the  overthrow  of  sacer- 
dotalism with  all  that  depended  upon  it.  There- 
after the  priest  was  no  person  with  mystical 
powers  for  blessing  or  condemning  men,  but 
simply  a  person  appointed  by  the  Christian  body 
for  the  proper  administration  of  the  spiritual 
services  of  the  Church.  On  all  these  accounts  the 
doctrine  had  epochal  significance  in  the  history 
and  progress  of  Christian  thought  and  life.  Over 
against  all  mechanical  good  works,  it  proclaimed 
that  salvation  is  by  faith  only.  Over  against  all 
spiritual  pride  and  self-sufficiency,  it  proclaimed 
that  salvation  is  of  grace.  Over  against  all 
priestly  or  ecclesiastical  assumption  and  usurpa- 
tion, it  proclaimed  the  direct  access  of  the  soul 
to  God. 

But  it  rarely  happens  that  a  great  truth  is 
clearly  apprehended  in  its  essential  meaning  and 
just  limitations  from  the  start,  and  it  certainly 
did  not  happen  in  this  case.  Both  faith  and  good 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       185 

works  were  misconceived,  and  much  confusion 
resulted.  Owing-  partly  to  the  quantitative  and 
juristic  conception  of  the  atonement,  faith  was 
often  viewed  as  mere  intellectual  assent  to  a 
doctrine,  and  was  finally  identified  with  dog- 
matic orthodoxy.  We  find  this  error  even  in  the 
apostles'  time;  and  St.  James  sharply  criticises  it 
by  saying  the  devils  have  this  faith.  "Thou  be- 
lievest  that  there  is  one  God;  thou  doest  well:  the 
devils  also  believe  and  tremble."  Later  on  the 
error  became  still  more  pronounced  and  general, 
and  constituted  one  of  the  great  aberrations  of 
theology,  and  a  fruitful  source  of  persecution. 
Of  course  there  is  nothing  morally  saving  in 
mere  intellectual  assent;  and  this  conception 
made  salvation  by  faith  an  absurdity.  What  is 
there  to  save  any  one,  or  to  transform  character, 
in  assenting  to  any  dogmatic  creed?  Even  if  one 
understood  them,  which  is  not  always  the  case, 
assenting  to  all  the  articles  of  the  Athanasian 
Creed  would  save  as  little  as  assentins:  to  the 
multiplication-table  or  a  book  of  logarithms.  As 
thus  conceived,  salvation  by  faith  would  be 
scarcely  more  than  an  idle  fiction  or  meaningless 
hocus-pocus  of  words. 

But  all  of  this  mistakes  the  doctrine.  The  faith 
that  saves  is  no  mere  assent  of  the  understanding ; 
it  is  the  practical  surrender  of  ourselves  to  the 


186  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

revealed  grace  and  will  of  God,  according  to  the 
commands  and  promises  of  our  Lord.  Our  trust 
in  this  divine  grace,  our  yielding  ourselves  up  to 
it  in  obedience  and  submission,  is  our  faith.  It 
is  a  moral  act  which  includes  trust,  submission, 
obedience ;  and  only  as  it  includes  them  all  is  it 
saving  faith.  And  that  we  can  be  truly  saved  — 
that  is,  lifted  Godward  —  only  in  this  way,  is  man- 
ifest. No  mechanical  rite  or  round  can  lift  us,  or 
has  merit.  We  must  trust  in  the  grace  above  us, 
and  submit  ourselves  to  it,  and  we  must  struggle 
toward  the  ideal  that  grace  holds  out.  The  object 
of  our  trust  may  never  be  sought  in  ourselves,  but 
only  in  the  grace  revealed  from  on  high.  How- 
ever we  stumble  or  fall,  we  must  not  abandon  this 
trust  and  devotion.  We  can  rise  only  as  our  eyes 
are  fixed  on  the  Infinite  Goodness  above  us. 

Understood  in  this  way,  salvation  by  faith  is 
one  of  the  deepest  truths  of  reHgion.  The  faith 
merits  nothing ;  for  it  is  grace  which  gives  faith 
its  value.  But  this  faith  is  all  we  have,  and  indeed 
it  is  all  that  any  finite  spirit  can  have.  And  where 
this  faith  is,  God  can  bestow  himself  upon  us. 
We  open  our  hearts  and  bid  him  come  in.  We 
bring  ourselves  to  him  to  be  made  the  temples  for 
a  divine  indwelling ;  and  he  receives  us  accord- 
ing to  his  word.  To  as  many  as  thus  receive  him 
he  gives  power  to  become  the  children  of  God  in 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT   187 

the  spirit.  When  faith  is  thus  conceived  we  see 
that  there  can  really  be  no  other  ethical  and  spir- 
itual condition  of  salvation.  All  other  conditions 
are  mechanical  and  non-spiritual,  and  can  never 
lift  any  soul  Godward.  But  when  faith  is  con- 
ceived as  bare  assent  to  any  dogma  whatever, 
instead  of  a  living  surrender  to  God  in  reliance 
upon  his  grace,  then  it  becomes  unfruitful,  if  not 
immoral  and  pernicious. 

The  rejection  of  good  works  was  likewise  not 
clearly  conceived,  and  this  led  to  some  disparage- 
ment of  the  doctrine.  The  one  thing  perfectly 
clear  was  that  good  works  by  machinery  were 
worthless ;  that  is,  all  performance  of  rite  and 
ceremony  of  whatever  kind  which  did  not  include, 
or  which  might  be  separated  from,  the  living  and 
loving  surrender  of  heart  and  will  to  the  love  and 
service  of  God.  All  such  works  remain  external 
to  the  soul,  and  count  for  nothing.  They  could 
never  please  God  or  lift  a  soul  toward  God.  "  My 
son,  give  me  thine  heart,"  is  the  supreme  and  all- 
inclusive  demand  from  the  divine  side,  and  the 
supreme  and  central  duty  from  the  human  side. 
The  rejection  of  mechanical  good  works  is  the 
first  condition  of  spiritual  religion. 

But  the  doctrine  was  not  so  clear  when  it 
passed  out  of  the  mechanical  into  the  moral  field; 


188  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  here  misunderstanding  arose.  The  desire 
to  emphasize  the  opposition  to  Roman  Catholic 
teaching  was  itself  a  source  of  aberration.  Again, 
good  works  themselves  in  an  ethical  sense  were 
superficially  conceived,  as  if  they  might  exist  with- 
out any  inner  loyalty  and  devotion  of  heart.  This 
was  to  confound  morality  with  legality,  and  led 
to  those  dreary  denunciations  of  "  mere  morality" 
and  natural  goodness  as  "  filthy  rags,"  which 
formed  the  staple  of  so  much  preaching  a  cen- 
tury ago.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  much  that 
was  passed  off  for  morality  was  only  external 
conformity  to  outward  law  and  custom,  and  was 
spiritually  worthless.  This  difficulty  disappears 
before  a  deeper  insight  into  the  true  nature  of 
morality.  When  it  is  seen  that  the  supreme  con- 
dition of  true  morality  is  the  loyalty  of  heart  and 
will  to  righteousness,  it  is  plain  that  we  need  have 
no  fear  of  good  works  in  the  moral  sense ;  indeed, 
the  more  of  them  the  better. 

This  difficulty  arose  partly  from  a  fear  of 
agreeing  with  the  Catholic  doctrine,  partly  from 
a  superficial  ethics,  and  partly  from  a  fear  of  recog- 
nizing human  goodness,  lest  the  necessity  of  grace 
should  seem  to  be  diminished.  A  deeper  and  more 
rational  source  of  the  confusion  in  this  matter  lies 
in  confounding  the  ethical  side  of  life,  which  is 
based  on  our  freedom,  with  the  religious  side, 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT        189 

which  is  based  on  our  dependence ;  and  thus 
either  the  moral  sense  or  the  religious  sense  was 
violated.  The  religious  sense  in  its  feeling  of  re- 
verence and  dependence  would  ascribe  everything 
good  to  God,  and  feels  as  irreverent  any  assump- 
tion of  merit  on  the  part  of  man.  But  the  moral 
nature  in  its  experience  of  freedom  and  responsi- 
bility insists  on  vindicating  a  place  for  virtue  and 
merit  in  man  also.  The  former  by  itself  would 
find  its  limit  in  a  powerless  passivity,  which  would 
cancel  humanity  altogether.  The  latter  by  itself 
would  easily  pass  into  Pharisaism  and  spiritual 
pride.  Out  of  the  failure  to  recognize  the  exist- 
ence and  equal  legitimacy  of  these  opposite  as- 
pects of  the  spiritual  life  has  arisen  a  great  deal 
of  unwisdom  concerning  the  value  of  our  good 
works. 

The  moral  nature  itself  has  a  double  aspect 
which,  in  a  measure,  runs  parallel  with  these  two 
antitheses.  We  may  judge  men  by  a  double 
standard.  If  they  are  faithful  to  their  light  and 
possibility,  we  call  them  good  on  that  account. 
Or  we  may  compare  them  with  our  ideal  of 
perfection,  and  then  we  find  them  imperfect,  and 
hence  condemned  by  the  ideal.  There  is  a  similar 
dualism  in  our  judgment  of  knowledge.  If  we 
judge  a  man's  attainments  by  the  standard  of 
his  time,  by  the  acquirements  of  his  fellows,  by 


190  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

reference  to  his  practical  needs,  we  may  well  call 
him  a  wise  man.  But  if  we  should  judge  with 
reference  to  perfect  and  completed  knowledge, 
we  should  be  unable  to  distinguish  him  from  the 
fool,  as  all  finite  values  and  differences  disappear 
when  compared  with  the  infinite.  In  like  manner, 
when  we  judge  men  morally  by  the  standard 
which  obtains  in  their  social  environment  and  by 
the  expectations  which  men  justly  form,  we  may 
accord  them  a  high  standard  of  goodness;  and 
they  might,  as  Job,  maintain  their  integrity 
against  all  charges.  But  when  we  hold  up  our 
lives  against  the  background  of  infinite  holiness 
and  perfection,  the  matter  is  altogether  different; 
and  the  language  which  comes  spontaneously  to 
our  lips  is  the  prayer  of  the  publican,  "  God,  be 
merciful  to  us  sinners."  But  these  are  only  ap- 
parent contradictions.  Both  views  are  true  accord- 
ing to  our  standpoint.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
human  merit,  but  all  boasting  is  excluded  before 
God. 

In  judging  of  human  goodness  we  must  always 
bear  in  mind  this  double  point  of  view,  not  deny- 
ing the  reality  of  human  virtue  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  falling  into  a  shallow  spiritual  pride  and  self- 
conceit  on  the  other.  Language  here  is  not  to 
be  viewed  as  the  formulas  of  logic,  but  as  the 
expression  of  life,  emotion,  religion;  and  it  is  to 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       191 

be  understood  only  from  that  standpoint.  The 
moral  will  must  always  assert  itself,  and  thus 
distinguish  between  the  good  man  and  the  bad. 
And  the  religious  nature,  in  its  sense  of  depend- 
ence and  reverence,  will  always  delight  in  viewing 
all  our  virtues  and  graces  as  the  gift  of  God. 

And  this  double  need  of  our  nature  is  best 
met  by  the  doctrine  of  grace  and  faith.  Our  sal- 
vation is  of  grace,  and  not  of  debt.  It  is  a  gift 
of  God,  and  not  a  reward  of  our  meritorious 
works.  But  this  salvation  is  through  our  faith, 
which  is  an  active  principle,  and  which  must 
issue  in  obedience,  or  it  is  not  faith  at  all.  We 
show  and  verify  our  faith  by  our  works,  and 
neither  can  exist  in  any  moral  sense  without  the 
other. 

This  is  that  salvation  by  faith  which  is  the 
glory  of  the  gospel,  and  which  is  a  most  whole- 
some doctrine,  and  very  full  of  comfort.  It  is 
only  the  morally  dull  and  blind  who  can  be  self- 
satisfied,  as  it  is  only  the  deeply  ignorant  who 
can  boast  of  the  greatness  of  their  knowledge. 
In  both  realms  the  ideal  grows  faster  than  the 
actual,  and  ever  condemns  our  utmost  attainment. 
No  strenuous  conscientiousness,  no  faithfulness 
of  service,  can  give  us  peace.  For  this  we  must 
be  taken  out  of  ourselves,  and  away  from  the 
contemplation  of  our  own  works,  and  made  to 


192  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

gaze  upon  the  infinite  grace  of  God  in  -which 
alone  we  trust  and  by  which  alone  we  stand. 

Thus  I  have  sought  to  relieve  the  doctrines  of 
divine  grace  from  the  verbal  and  mechanical 
misunderstandings  which  infest  popular  religious 
thought,  and  make  the  gospel  itself  a  stumbling- 
block  to  many.  In  concluding,  I  emphasize  several 
points :  — 

1.  We  must  distinguish  between  the  fact  of 
the  Saviour's  work  and  the  theological  theory  of 
it.  The  latter  is  not  of  faith,  but  of  speculation. 
Moreover,  the  fact  is  the  essential  thing ;  and  the 
religious  teacher  must  never  allow  any  one  to 
think  he  has  abandoned  the  fact  because  he  is 
dissatisfied  with  the  theory. 

2.  We  must  note  the  instrumental  and  undog- 
matic  character  of  Scripture  language  on  this 
subject,  and  the  resulting  necessity  of  taking  it 
in  a  free  and  living  way  rather  than  as  the  lan- 
guage of  a  dogma  or  a  statute.  A  person  who 
reads  the  Scriptures  with  no  aid  but  the  diction- 
ary, and  without  knowledge  of  ancient  life  and 
custom,  and  without  diligently  comparing  Scrip- 
ture with  Scripture,  will  certainly  go  astray  in 
this  matter. 

3.  The  doctrine  itself  must  be  brought  out  of 
the  desert  of  abstract  speculation,  and  be  con- 


INCARNATION  AND  ATONEMENT       193 

structed  and  interpreted  in  the  light  of  life  and 
human  experience.  The  ethical  aim  and  aspect  of 
the  doctrine  must  be  emphasized;  and  whatever 
conflicts  therewith  must  be  set  aside.  It  is  God's 
aim  to  save  men  from  sin,  not  in  sin;  to  save 
men  from  sin,  not  from  penalty;  to  recover  men 
to  righteousness,  not  to  plant  them  in  heaven. 
Forgiveness  and  salvation  must  be  interpreted  in 
accordance  with  this  fundamental  fact. 

4.  In  religious  instruction  the  teacher  must  put 
supreme  emphasis  on  the  fact  of  the  Saviour's 
work.  He  must  proclaim  the  love  of  God,  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
and  must  summon  men  to  discipleship  in  his  name. 
This  is  practically  the  gist  of  the  matter,  and 
whatever  attention  we  give  to  theory,  we  must 
never  allow  it  to  obscure  this  simple  fact. 

5.  For  practical  purposes  all  we  need  is  to  be- 
come the  disciples  of  our  Lord,  trusting  in  his 
promises  and  the  Father  whom  he  revealed.  With 
this  practical  discipleship  we  shall  receive  all  the 
benefits  of  the  Saviour's  work  without  any  the- 
ory; and  without  this  discipleship  we  are  lost, 
whatever  our  theory. 


m 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 


Ill 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

My  purpose  in  writing,  and  the  scope  of  the  dis- 
cussion, will  best  appear  from  some  facts  of  expe- 
rience :  — 

Not  long  ago  a  most  worthy  minister  of  my 
acquaintance,  one  who  had  been  preaching  more 
than  fifty  years  and  who  was  a  model  of  saintly 
living,  came  to  another  minister,  also  a  friend  of 
mine,  to  talk  about  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
And  his  trouble  was  that  he  could  not  feel  sure 
that  he  had  ever  had  this  witness.  The  expecta- 
tion awakened  by  the  phrase  had  never  been  sat- 
isfied. And  the  good  man's  heart  was  disturbed ; 
and  he  sought  counsel  of  his  brother. 

My  professional  life  has  largely  been  spent  in 
contact  with  thoughtful  young  men  and  women  ; 
and  I  have  frequently  observed  an  uneasy  feel- 
ing on  their  part  that  the  traditional  phrases  of 
religious  speech  do  not  set  forth  with  unstrained 
naturalness  and  transparent  sincerity  the  facts  of 
their  religious  life.  Often  they  have  formed  a 
conception  of  what  the  religious  life  should  be  by 
reflection  on  the  customary  and  inherited  phrases ; 


198  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  thus  they  have  been  led  to  entertain  unwar- 
ranted expectations.  Then  the  failure  to  realize 
them  has  led  to  an  uncomfortable  sense  of  arti- 
ficiality and  unreality  in  all  religious  experience. 

In  addition,  I  may  say  that  I  have  been  listen- 
ing intelligently  to  preaching  for  over  forty  years. 
Of  course  I  have  heard  a  great  many  good  ser- 
mons, but  in  all  that  time  I  have  heard  very  few 
sermons  on  conversion  and  the  beginnings  of  the 
religious  life  which  were  not  both  confused  and 
confusing.  Theological  expositions  have  been 
plentiful  enough ;  vague,  verbal  exhortations  have 
abounded ;  but  there  has  been  a  grievous  lack  of 
clear  statement  of  what  the  seeking  soul  is  to 
expect,  or  of  what  is  expected  from  it. 

Such  facts  suggest,  what  every  thoughtful  and 
observant  person  must  recognize,  that  there  is 
need  of  revising  popular  religious  phraseology, 
and  also  of  clarifying  popular  conceptions  con- 
cerning the  religious  life  itself,  and  especially 
concerning  its  beginnings  in  conversion.  This 
study  is  intended  as  a  contribution  to  this  desir- 
able end. 

The  popular  confusion  on  this  subject  in  our 
individualistic  churches  has  several  leading  sources, 
and  our  first  work  must  be  to  indicate  them.  The 
first  is  the  confounding  the  language  of  theology 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  199 

■with  the  language  of  experience.  The  second  is 
the  mistaking  of  the  abstract  classifications  of 
theologf'ical  discussion  for  concrete  classifications 
of  living  men.  The  third  is  an  exaggerated  indi- 
vidualism. We  consider  them  in  their  order. 

On  the  first  point  we  must  note  that  a  great 
many  things  may  be  theologically  true  which  are 
not  psychologically  true.  We  may  express  and 
explain  the  experience  in  terms  of  doctrine,  and 
in  so  doing  we  may  have  the  truth ;  nevertheless, 
the  doctrine  is  not  a  fact  of  consciousness,  but  a 
theory  about  the  fact. 

Thus,  when  some  brother  of  picturesque  habit 
of  speech  says  in  the  social  meeting,  "The  devil 
told  me  not  to  come  here  to-night,"  we  are  not  to 
think  that  he  has  had  an  infernal  interview.  The 
fact  of  experience  is  that  he  was  disinclined  to 
come,  and  this  disinclination  he  attributes  to  the 
devil.  But  however  correct  this  may  be  as  a  theory 
of  the  hidden  source  of  the  temptation,  it  would 
be  highly  infelicitous  to  suppose  that  anything  of 
the  sort  occurred  within  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual  himself.  The  experience  as  he  states  it 
is  not  the  experience  as  lying  within  the  range  of 
consciousness,  but  rather  the  experience  as  theo- 
logized or,  more  properly,  diabolized  by  this  in- 
fernal reference. 

A  less  distasteful  illustration  of  the  difference 


200  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

between  the  language  of  theology  and  that  of 
conscious  experience  may  be  found  in  our  speech 
concerning  the  divine  providence  in  our  lives. 
We  believe  and  teach  that  our  times  are  in  God's 
hand ;  but  this  does  not  imply  that  we  have  any 
preception  of  the  divine  presence,  or  even  that  we 
can  clearly  trace  the  way  in  which  God  is  work- 
ing out  his  will  concerning  us.  The  life  of  expe- 
rience is  the  familiar  life  of  question,  uncertainty, 
forethought,  calculation,  and  venture,  in  all  of 
which,  moreover,  we  commonly  seem  left  at  our 
own  risk  to  find  the  way;  and  not  infrequently 
we  miss  it,  and  go  astray.  We  still  retain  the  doc- 
trine as  an  article  of  faith ;  but  we  see  that  we 
must  work  out  our  own  salvation  nevertheless. 
We  may  indeed  be  profoundly  convinced  that  we 
have  been  divinely  guided,  but  this  is  more  gen- 
erally a  later  inference  than  a  present  revela- 
tion. The  doctrine  then  expresses  a  theory  of  life 
rather  than  a  conscious  experience ;  and  unless 
we  bear  this  distinction  in  mind,  it  is  more  likely 
to  be  a  source  of  doubt  than  of  comfort. 

This  is  self-evident  to  every  thoughtful  person ; 
but  what  is  not  so  plain  to  every  one  is  that  there 
is  a  vast  amount  of  language  concerning  the  inner 
life  which  is  of  the  same  sort.  It  is  not  the  lan- 
guage of  experience,  but  of  theological  theory. 
A  great  many  things  are  said  about  the  work  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  201 

the  Lord  in  the  soul,  the  operations  of  the  Spirit, 
his  presence  with  us,  —  and  all  this  may  be  true 
theologically,  but  it  is  not  true  psychologically. 
Moreover,  a  person  who  holds  the  theology  in 
question  may  very  naturally  use  it  for  expressing 
his  experience ;  yet  even  that  does  not  make  it  a 
fact  of  experience.  It  is  an  object  of  belief,  not 
a  fact  of  consciousness;  an  accepted  doctrine,  not  a 
conscious  datum.  Nevertheless,  this  language  of 
theory  is  put  forward  as  the  language  of  expe- 
rience, and  then  confusion  arises.  By  consequence 
a  great  many  try  to  experience  theology  instead 
of  experiencing  religion. 

Two  classes  of  persons  escape  this  confusion. 
The  first  class  consists  of  those  persons,  unskilled 
in  reflection,  whose  language  has  only  an  acci- 
dental connection  with  their  ideas.  They  hear 
and  inherit  phrases,  and  they  have  a  measure  of 
religious  life.  They  also  use  the  phrases  upon 
occasion;  but  no  one  could  ever  discover  from  a 
reflection  on  the  phrases,  and  the  ordinary  secular 
use  of  language,  what  the  corresponding  expe- 
rience might  be.  One  must  gather  this  from  an 
acquaintance  with  the  subject-matter,  and  with 
the  peculiar  forms  of  speech  in  this  field.  Here 
again  we  find  illustration  in  the  brother  who  says 
the  devil  tells  him  to  do  this  or  that.  No  exegesis 
of  the  utterance,  according  to  the  recognized  us- 


202  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ao-e  of  secular  speech,  would  ever  reveal  that  this 
means  only  that  the  person  feels  an  inclination  to 
some  evil  deed,  and  ascribes  it  to  the  devil  as  its 
source.  Persons  in  this  stage  of  development  are 
not  harmed  by  speech  which  would  be  misleading 
to  one  who  sought  to  understand  it  in  the  ordi- 
nary way.  They  do  not  get  any  ideas  from  lan- 
guage, but  they  express  the  ideas  they  have  in  the 
phrases  which  have  become  conventional  upon 
the  subject. 

The  second  class  of  persons  who  suffer  no  harm 
from  such  language  consists  of  those  who  have 
learned  to  take  the  language,  not  for  what  it 
seems  to  say,  but  for  what  they  know  it  means. 
They  understand  the  picturesque  phrase,  or  dis- 
count the  extravagant  metaphor,  or  penetrate  to 
the  meaning  behind  some  grotesque  or  distaste- 
ful image,  and  thus  escape  the  illusion  which 
miorht  otherwise  arise. 

But  there  is  a  third  class  less  fortunate.  This 
consists  of  persons  who  have  attained  to  some 
measure  of  reflective  consciousness,  but  who  have 
not  learned  to  distinguish  the  language  of  theo- 
logy from  the  language  of  experience.  By  con- 
sequence they  seek  to  tell  what  the  religious  fact 
should  be  by  reflecting  on  the  language  they  hear 
used  to  describe  it.  Only  such  or  such  an  expe- 
rience would  come  up  to  the  demands  of  the  Ian- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  203 

guage,  and  then  they  seek  to  have  the  experience. 
But  somehow  or  other  the  appropriate  experience 
does  not  come ;  and  then  comes  either  an  attempt 
to  believe  the  actual  experience  is  the  one  desired, 
or  else  a  suspicion  that  the  v^hole  matter  is  ficti- 
tious. Not  a  few  good  Christians  have  lived  on 
uneasy  terms  with  their  religious  experience  on 
this  account.  They  have  taken  the  language  of 
theology  for  the  language  of  consciousness,  and 
thus  have  been  led  to  form  unwarranted  expecta- 
tions. My  friend  who  was  troubled  about  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit  had  the  root  of  his  difficulty 
right  here.  The  phrase  had  led  him  to  expect  some 
sort  of  celestial  manifestation,  a  testimony  from 
without,  and  standing  so  clearly  apart  from  the 
ordinary  laws  of  mental  movement  as  to  be  un- 
deniably produced  by  the  manifest  God.  In  lack 
of  any  such  experience,  he  doubted  whether  he 
had  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  This  class 
comprises  the  great  mass  of  thoughtful  young 
persons  in  the  churches.  And  for  this  class  the 
religious  teacher  needs  to  bear  in  mind  the  dis- 
tinction between  theology  and  consciousness,  in 
order  to  escape  misleading  and  dangerous  confu- 
sion. 

The  language  of  theology  must  often  be  used, 
indeed,  but  it  should  be  used  in  such  a  way  as 
not  to  mislead  the  inexperienced  hearer  or  reader 


204  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

into  an  attempt  to  experience  theology.  And  in 
general  we  must  remember  that  all  language 
about  the  inner  life  must  be  misleading  to  any- 
one who  interprets  it  only  by  the  dictionary. 
Commonly  the  language  is  a  metaphor,  or  it  has 
a  fixity  and  definiteness  which  do  not  belong  to 
the  fact;  or  it  may  express  an  ideal  toward 
which  we  strive,  but  which  we  never  fully  attain. 
There  is  much  religious  speech  of  this  sort.  It 
indicates  a  direction  or  sets  forth  an  ideal,  to 
which  we  can  only  approximate.  The  fact  it- 
self, however,  can  be  learned  only  in  life ;  and 
the  language  is  only  an  imperfect  instrument  for 
expressing  the  life.  The  religious  teacher  cannot 
be  too  careful  and  discriminating  at  this  point, 
for  really  there  is  no  language  on  this  matter 
that  does  not  need  to  be  carefully  guarded  to 
prevent  confusion. 

The  second  great  source  of  our  confusion  is 
the  mistaking  of  the  hard-and-fast  lines  and  an- 
titheses of  theological  ethics  for  concrete  facts 
among  living  men.  Ethics  in  general  tends  to  fall 
into  this  error.  We  speak  of  the  moral  agent  and 
of  responsibility,  and  have  fairly  clear  ideas  as  to 
our  meaning  so  long  as  we  remain  in  the  field  of 
abstraction.  But  the  matter  becomes  indefinitely 
more  complex  when  we  look  at  actual  human 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  205 

beings.  Then  we  find  that  we  have  to  deal,  not 
with  hypothetical  and  abstract  moral  agents,  but 
with  beings  in  an  order  of  development  where  the 
intellectual  insight,  the  volitional  energy  and 
self-control,  and  the  moral  sensibiHty  have  to  be 
developed,  and  where  the  development  is  never 
complete.  This  complicates  the  matter  indefinite- 
ly; and  while  our  abstract  ideas  are  still  true  as 
abstractions,  we  see  that  they  have  to  be  greatly 
modified  in  application.  Every  thoughtful  person 
knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  determine  the  mea- 
sure of  merit  or  demerit  in  a  concrete  case.  En- 
vironment, heredity,  and  the  inscrutable  personal 
equation  have  to  be  taken  into  account ;  and 
these  are  all  beyond  us. 

The  fact  appears  even  more  prominently  in 
theology.  We  form  such  antithetical  classes  as 
saints  and  sinners,  the  saved  and  the  unsaved; 
and  we  fancy  that  living  human  beings  admit  of 
being  classified  in  this  hard-and-fast  way.  Of 
course  these  abstractions  are  necessary  in  theo- 
retical discussion,  and  the  opposed  classes  are 
mutually  exclusive  and  contradictory;  neverthe- 
less, concrete  men,  women,  and  children  cannot 
be  divided  off  so  easily.  This  is  a  world  of 
growth  from  irresponsible  ignorance  and  weak- 
ness toward  responsible  power  and  insight;  it  is 
a  world  of  development  from  sub-moral  and  sub- 


206  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

rational  beginnings  toward  moral  and  rational 
endings.  And  in  such  a  world  we  must  view 
great  masses  of  men  as  neither  saved  nor  lost, 
but  as  developing  towards  these  conditions.  They 
are  neither  good  nor  bad,  in  a  strictly  moral 
sense,  but  are  becoming  good  or  bad.  An  aca- 
demic ethics  and  an  artificial  theology  find  no 
place  for  them,  yet  they  form  the  bulk  of  the 
human  race.  And  we  shall  never  reach  any 
theory  which  will  satisfy  the  developed  moral 
judgment  of  men  until  this  fact  has  been  recog- 
nized. The  human  world  is  less  a  world  in  which 
moral  classes  exist  than  one  in  which  moral 
classes  are  forming. 

The  difference  between  the  abstract  and  the 
concrete  standpoint  appears  with  startling  vivid- 
ness when  we  are  dealing  with  our  dead.  Damn- 
ing the  abstract  sinner  is  an  easy  matter  and 
seems  to  be  meet  and  right  and  a  bounden  duty, 
but  it  looks  different  when  it  is  our  own  flesh 
and  blood.  Then  in  one  way  or  another  we  leave 
open  some  door  of  hope.  The  Church  wisely 
makes  no  distinction  in  its  liturgy  for  the  burial 
of  the  dead  and  refuses  to  pass  judgment.  A 
letter  of  Fenelon's  well  illustrates  the  difference 
between  the  abstract  austerity  of  the  theologian 
and  the  human  heart  of  the  man.  He  writes  to 
a  father  whose  son  had  lived  a  reckless  life  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  207 

died  gallantly  in  battle:  "You  must  not  give 
way  too  much  to  distressing  thoughts.  The 
frailty  of  such  early  youth  in  a  life  so  full  of 
diversion  is  not  so  poisonous  as  some  sensual 
vices  which  are  refined  into  the  disguise  of  vir- 
tues in  later  life.  God  sees  the  clay  of  which  he 
has  moulded  us,  and  has  pity  on  his  poor  chil- 
dren. Besides,  although  the  force  of  nature  and 
example  may  lead  a  young  man  in  some  degree 
astray,  we  can,  notwithstanding,  say  what  the 
Church  says  in  the  prayers  of  the  dying,  *  Never- 
theless, 0  God,  his  hope  and  trust  were  in  thee.' 
A  foundation  of  faith  and  religious  principles 
which  has  been  overwhelmed  by  the  excitement 
of  passions  is  stirred  in  a  moment  by  imminent 
danger.  Such  an  extremity  as  this  routs  all  Hfe's 
illusions,  lifts  a  sort  of  veil,  reveals  eternity,  and 
recalls  the  realities  that  have  become  shrouded. 
However  little  God  may  seem  to  be  working  in 
that  moment,  the  first  instinct  of  a  heart  that  has 
ever  been  accustomed  to  him  is  to  throw  itself 
upon  his  mercy.  Neither  time  nor  exhortations 
are  needed  for  him  to  be  felt  and  heard.  To 
Magdalene  he  said  but  the  one  word,  ^Mary,' 
and  she  replied  to  him  but  that  other  word, 
*  Master';-  and  no  more  was  needed.  He  called 
his  child  by  her  name,  and  she  was  already 
returned  to  him.    That  ineffable  appeal  is  all- 


208  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

powerful;  a  new  heart  and  a  new  soul  are  born 
in  the  inmost  being.  Weak  men  who  can  see 
only  the  surface  desire  preparation,  definite 
ritual,  spoken  resolves.  God  needs  only  a  moment 
wherein  he  can  do  all  and  see  that  it  is  done." 

This  passage  is  quoted  not  for  the  sake  of  ex- 
pressing approval  or  disapproval,  but  solely  to 
show  that  even  the  most  orthodox  may  draw  back 
from  the  abstract  theory  in  concrete  application. 
But  in  our  closet  speculation  we  commonly  over- 
look this  fact  and  divide  men  into  antithetical 
classes,  as  the  saved  and  the  unsaved.  This  has 
generally  been  an  abstract  division,  and  abstract 
law  and  abstract  justice  and  abstract  holiness  and 
abstract  sin  have  played  their  abstract  part.  But 
after  we  have  adopted  this  division,  it  becomes  an 
important  matter  to  fix  the  standard  of  distinction. 
If  one  is  not  saved,  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  concern 
to  know  the  ground  of  the  exclusion,  particularly 
as  the  traditional  classification  by  no  means  al- 
ways runs  parallel  with  our  unsophisticated  moral 
judgments.  In  response  to  this  need,  theologians 
have  given  a  great  variety  of  answers.  Those  who 
have  lost  themselves  in  theological  and  ritual 
mechanism  have  found  the  mark  of  being  saved 
in  the  due  performance  of  some  rite  or  pronun- 
ciation of  some  formula;  but  this  removes  the 
matter  from  the  moral  and  rational  field  alto- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  209 

gether.  The  churches  which  insist  on  personal 
piety  tend  to  fix  attention  on  conversion,  or  a 
change  of  heart,  or  the  new  birth,  as  the  distinc- 
tive mark  of  the  saved;  and  because  of  the  fail- 
ure to  grasp  the  fact  of  development,  this  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  a  definite  date  in  time. 
And  in  order  that  there  be  no  mistake  about  a 
matter  so  important,  these  churches  have  sought 
for  unmistakable  signs  of  grace  which  should 
leave  no  question.  This  has  led  to  certain  concep- 
tions of  these  things  to  which  experience  must 
conform,  on  pain  of  being  distrusted,  if  not  re- 
jected as  spurious ;  and  this  in  turn  has  led  to  an 
indefinite  amount  of  distortion  of  experience  in 
order  to  bring  it  up  to  the  assumed  standard. 

In  the  imperfect  conditions  of  undeveloped 
men,  every  good  thing  has  its  attendant  evil,  or 
at  least  a  tendency  to  develop  into  mistaken 
forms.  A  very  general  tendency,  even  in  the 
Christian  religion,  has  been  to  develop  into  me- 
chanical externalism,  in  which  the  spirit  is  missed 
altogether.  Ancient  Pharisaism  is  a  monumental 
example.  The  same  thing  is  seen  in  the  mediaeval 
Church ;  and  modern  church  history  is  not  lacking 
in  illustration.  There  is  a  tendency  to  substitute 
a  mechanical  performance  of  mechanical  rites 
for  the  love  and  loyalty  of  the  heart.  Hence,  reli- 


210  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

gious  reformers  have  commonly  had  to  protest 
against  this  tendency,  and  to  recall  men  to  the  wor- 
ship of  the  spirit.  The  Lord  looketh  at  the  heart. 
They  that  worship  God  must  worship  him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  The  prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament  had  for  one  of  their  chief  burdens  the 
worthlessness  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  the 
necessity  of  the  pure  heart,  if  we  would  secure 
the  divine  favor.  God,  who  looketh  at  the  heart, 
can  never  compound  for  spiritual  obedience  by 
accepting  anything  less.  And  this  has  been  the 
tone  of  all  succeeding  reformers  and  reforma- 
tions. Away  with  all  salvation  by  machinery, 
by  hearsay,  by  proxy,  and  let  the  soul  come  face 
to  face  with  God  in  repentance  and  humility  and 
faith !  Only  thus  can  it  hope  to  obtain  the  remis- 
sion of  sins. 

This  view  certainly  represents  the  ideal  of  spirit- 
ual religion ;  and  religious  development  must  be 
looked  upon  as  imperfect,  even  formally,  until 
this  stage  has  been  reached.  And  if  we  were  deal- 
ing with  human  beings  ready-made  and  finished 
from  the  start,  we  might  conceive  that  this  is  the 
only  conception  to  be  allowed.  But  the  matter 
is  complicated  by  the  fact  and  form  of  human 
development.  This  spiritual  attitude  may  be  de- 
manded of  those  who  have  developed  far  enough 
to  understand  it ;  but  what  of  those  who  have 
not  ?  Are  they  saved  or  unsaved  ? 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  211 

This  question  has  been  the  source  of  some 
extraordinary  notions  in  theology.  The  question 
itself  arose  from  a  failure  to  observe  that  devel- 
opment is  the  law  of  human  life;  and  the  notions 
held  rested  upon  factitious  ethical  difficulties, 
based  upon  considering  the  problem  in  an  abstract, 
forensic  way,  instead  of  a  concrete  and  truly  eth- 
ical manner.  Some  theologians  of  rigor  and  vigor 
taught  the  damnation  of  infants,  but  humanity 
generally  protested  at  this  ultra  rigor.  But  how 
to  save  them  was  a  problem  which  received  no 
single  solution.  The  great  body  of  Christians 
turned  baptism  into  a  regenerating  rite  which 
insured  the  safety  of  its  subjects.  One  cannot 
make  much  out  of  this  on  ethical  and  rational 
grounds ;  but  it  is  interesting  as  showing  the  well- 
nigh  universal  conviction  of  the  Christian  world 
that  some  way  must  be  found  of  saving  the  chil- 
dren. Those  who  did  not  accept  this  device  found 
or  invented  others ;  and  the  same  fact  was  true 
of  these  —  they  testified  to  a  good  disposition 
and  to  the  recognition  of  a  moral  necessity ;  but 
it  was  exceedingly  hard  to  adjust  them  to  any 
ethical  and  rational  scheme. 

In  general,  here  was  a  problem  which  the  re- 
ligious reformer  did  not  always  sufficiently  con- 
sider. In  assuming  responsibility  for  the  immature, 
the  Church  had  made  some  provision  for  compre- 


212  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

bending  the  race  as  a  whole  in  the  scheme  of  sal- 
vation ;  but  in  so  doing,  it  had  also  exposed  itself 
to  a  variety  of  dangers.  The  Church  easily  came 
to  be  looked  upon  as  having  complete  power  of 
attorney  in  the  case,  so  that  the  individual  need 
not  appear  at  all.  This  readily  passed  into  a  me- 
chanical conception  of  rehgion,  and  a  magical 
conception  of  salvation,  in  which  all  spirituality 
disappeared.  The  individual  had  nothing  to  do 
but  to  make  arrangements  with  the  Church,  and 
the  Church  would  do  the  rest. 

Against  such  a  conception  the  religious  re- 
former rightly  revolted.  What  does  baptism 
amount  to  without  the  spirit  ?  What  does  any- 
thing in  religion  amount  to  without  the  pure 
heart  ?  And  this  cannot  be  secured  by  proxy  or 
machinery  of  any  kind.  Away  then,  once  more, 
with  all  such  matters!  for  salvation  is  a  strictly 
individual  thing.  State  churches  were  abomina- 
tions, as  their  fruits  clearly  showed.  The  truly 
spiritual  were  to  come  out  from  among  them,  and 
be  separate,  and  thus  build  up  a  peculiar  people, 
zealous  of  good  works. 

All  of  this  was  well-meant,  and  all  of  this  had 
its  historical  reasons,  if  not  its  justification.  But 
none  the  less  was  it  one-sided.  Of  course  we  must 
reject  the  mechanism  of  rite  and  ceremony  as 
anything  in  which  to  trust,  or  which  can  dispense 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  213 

■with  the  devotion  of  the  heart ;  but  we  can  do 
this  and  still  recognize  that  this  mechanism  may- 
be a  valuable  instrument  in  forminor-  the  thouofht 
and  training  the  feeling  of  developing  men.  Of 
course  we  must  reject  the  notion  that  the  Church 
can  forgive  sins ;  but  still  we  may  believe  that  it 
can  declare  the  forgiveness  of  sins  which  of  itself 
it  cannot  confer.  We  must  remember  that  the 
mass  of  human  beings  must  live  by  hearsay,  in 
religion  as  well  as  in  most  other  matters;  and 
thus  the  authoritative  teaching  of  the  Church 
acquires  profound  significance  for  the  religious 
life  of  the  individual.  The  religrious  reformer  was 
right,  but  the  churchman  was  right  too.  The 
reformer  emphasized  individualism ;  and  the 
churchman  emphasized  solidarity.  The  reformer 
rightly  held  that  the  individual  must  for  himself 
recognize  and  accept  the  divine  will,  and  that  all 
below  this  was  vain  if  this  result  was  not  reached  ; 
but  the  churchman  rightly  held  that  the  prepar- 
atory steps,  while  making  nothing  perfect,  still 
had  their  religious  significance  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual.  Both  views  are  needed 
for  the  full  expression  of  the  truth ;  and  if  the 
historic  circumstances  of  the  time  had  permitted 
the  reforms  to  go  on  within  the  Church,  the  result 
would  have  been  better  for  all  concerned.  And 
this  is  true  alike  for  the  great  Protestant  Refor- 


214  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

matlon  and  for  minor  reformations  before  and 
since.  That  both  views  are  needed  especially  ap- 
-pesiTs  from  the  struggles  of  the  extreme  individ- 
ualists in  fixing  the  beginning  of  responsibil- 
ity. One  considerable  body,  which  would  hear  of 
nothing  but  conscious  choice  and  self-initiative 
in  religion,  officially  fixed  the  tender  age  of  eight 
years  as  the  date  when  adult  life  begins!  Of 
course,  back  of  both  views,  as  the  only  thing  that 
gives  either  of  them  any  standing,  is  the  simple 
grace  of  God,  who  is  not  working  a  scheme  of 
technical  salvation,  but  who  is  developing  men 
into  his  image  as  his  spiritual  children. 

But  in  their  determination  to  have  a  holy 
church,  our  Nonconformist  ancestors  decided  to 
have  only  the  best ;  and  this  made  it  necessary 
to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  Church  and  the 
world.  It  was  heresy  to  find  this  in  baptism  or 
any  such  thing.  They  knew  only  too  well  that 
baptized  persons  could  hold  full  membership  in 
the  synagogue  of  Satan.  And  as  spirituality  was 
their  aim,  they  naturally  fixed  their  attention 
on  the  religious  life,  and  more  especially  on  its 
assumed  beginning  in  conversion.  And,  in  order 
that  there  might  be  no  mistake  about  the  mat- 
ter, a  deal  of  attention  was  directed  to  the  signs 
of  grace,  whereby  a  sheep  might  infallibly  be 
known  and  separated  from  common  goats.  This 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  215 

led,  in  New  England,  under  Edwards's  influence, 
to  much  fictitious  psychology  and  ethics,  and 
to  a  general  browbeating  of  human  nature.  The 
early  Methodists  tended  to  test  conversion  by 
its  emotional  attendants.  Other  things  being 
equal,  these  will  vary  with  the  measure  of  the 
break  between  the  new  life  and  the  old.  An  out- 
breaking sinner,  who  has  been  living  in  violation 
of  all  the  laws  of  God  and  man,  could  not  begin 
the  new  life  without  a  break  with  about  all  there 
was  in  his  old  life.  In  such  a  case  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep  would  be  broken  up  within  him, 
and  there  would  be  an  intensity  of  feeling  and  a 
manifest  new  departure  which  would  be  lacking, 
or  less  obvious,  in  the  case  of  a  better  man.  And 
as  Methodism,  in  its  original  work,  dealt  largely 
with  persons  of  this  class,  conversions  were  largely 
of  this  type,  and  they  came  to  be  the  standard 
to  which  conversions  should  conform.  Such  con- 
versions were  said  to  be  clear  or  powerful ;  while 
others,  less  marked,  though  admitted,  were  still 
open  to  the  suspicion  of  being  less  thorough. 
Every  one  familiar  with  Methodist  revival  ser- 
vices knows  how  common  such  views  have  been. 
Thus  we  have  seen  the  origin  and  justification 
of  the  ideal  of  the  individualistic  churches  in  re- 
gard to  personal  religion  ;  and  we  have  also  seen 
how  much   confusion  and  uncertainty  exist   in 


216  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

popular  thought  respecting  the  matter.  And  the 
only  way  out  of  this  confusion  seems  to  be  to  get 
back  to  our  fundamental  religious  conceptions, 
and  from  them  seek  to  find  our  way  to  some 
clearer  views  of  the  religious  life. 

Religious  truth  can  be  expressed  only  by  fig- 
ures borrowed  from  the  relations  of  the  life  that 
now  is.  All  religious  speech,  then,  is  based  on 
metaphor,  and  must  be  taken,  not  for  what  it 
says,  but  for  what  it  means.  The  task  of  religious 
thought  is  to  find  the  meaning  in  the  metaphor, 
and  also  to  find  the  metaphor  which  shall  best 
express  the  meaning.  There  is  a  choice  in  meta- 
phors. 

The  traditional  theological  doctrine  concerning 
sin  and  salvation  has  been  largely  built  on  meta- 
phors, taken  partly  from  the  rites  of  the  ancient 
temple  service  and  partly  from  governmental, 
legal,  and  criminal  relations.  God's  relation  to 
men  was  generally  conceived,  in  the  obsolescent 
theology  of  the  past,  as  that  of  an  irresponsible 
governor.  Men  were  by  nature  criminals,  and  the 
theory  of  the  mutual  relations  of  God  and  men 
was  based  mainly  on  this  conception.  The  notion 
of  the  governor  and  his  rights  was  determined 
largely  by  the  political  absolutism  of  the  time, 
and  the  standing  of  men  was  determined  by  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  217 

forms  of  criminal  law  and  criminal  procedure. 
The  two  together  produced  a  most  incongruous 
compound.  The  theology  was  bad,  and  the  ethics 
was  worse.  God,  like  the  king,  could  do  no  wrong, 
and  the  clay  was  forbidden  to  protest  at  anything 
the  potter  might  do.  The  infinite  ill-desert  of  a 
sin  against  an  infinite  being  was  a  favorite  con- 
tention. Guilt  was  artificial,  justice  was  artificial, 
penalty  was  artificial,  salvation  was  artificial,  per^ 
dition  was  artificial.  There  was  very  little  in  the 
doctrine  concerning  any  of  these  things  that 
spoke  clearly  and  convincingly  to  the  reason  and 
conscience  of  men.  This  general  view  resulted  in 
conceiving  men  as  rebels,  apostates,  traitors,  and 
as  all  deserving  immediate  perdition  at  the  hands 
of  God.  They  were  by  nature  children  of  wrath, 
and  of  course  unsaved.  A  great  many  texts,  in- 
terpreted according  to  the  fashion  of  that  time, 
readily  lent  themselves  to  such  notions. 

But  the  entire  Church  has  grown  away  from 
this  view,  except  as  a  very  imperfect  and  inade- 
quate representation  of  the  truth.  God  may  be 
represented  as  governor,  but  never  with  the  lim- 
itations of  a  human  governor,  and  still  less  with 
the  irresponsibility  of  an  Oriental  ruler.  The 
crude  devices  of  criminal  law,  also,  which  are 
mainly  makeshifts  for  doing  as  little  injustice  as 
possible,  are  never  to  be  appealed  to  as  models  of 


218  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

divine  procedure.  We  are  fast  displacing  the  en- 
tire conception  of  God  as  governor  by  the  con- 
ception of  God  as  father ;  and  the  conception  of 
the  divine  government  is  giving  place  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  divine  family.  The  deepest  thought 
of  God  is  not  that  of  ruler,  but  of  father;  and 
the  deepest  thought  of  men  is  not  that  of  sub- 
jects, but  of  children.  And  the  deepest  thought 
concerning  God's  purpose  in  our  life  is  not  salva- 
tion from  threatening  danger,  but  the  training 
and  development  of  souls  as  the  children  of  God. 
Salvation  or  redemption  is  but  an  incident  or  im- 
plication of  this  deeper  purpose,  and  must  be  in- 
terpreted accordingly.  The  entire  subject  must 
be  studied  as  a  relation  of  living  moral  persons 
rather  than  of  ethical  and  juristic  abstractions. 

This  new  conception  of  the  fatherhood  and  the 
family  contains  all  that  was  true  in  the  old  con- 
ception of  governor  and  subject;  but  it  is  deeper 
and  more  comprehensive,  and  hence  truer,  than 
the  old.  And  in  so  far  as  the  older  view  conflicts 
with  this,  it  must  be  modified  or  set  aside.  It  may 
be  retained  as  a  partial  view,  or  as  one  aspect  of 
the  subject,  but  it  must  always  be  interpreted  in 
accordance  with  the  larger  view.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  new  conception  is  not  to  be  viewed  as  a 
sentimental  one,  or  as  involving  a  relaxation  of 
the  rigor  of  moral  demands. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  219 

The  training  and  development  of  souls  as  the 
children  of  God,  then,  is  God's  essential  purpose 
in  the  creation  of  men ;  and  we  must  understand 
our  human  life  from  this  point  of  view.  And  we 
must  also  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  an  order  of 
development.  That  was  not  first  which  was  spirit- 
ual, but  that  which  was  natural,  and  afterward 
that  which  was  spiritual.  The  development  has  a 
natural  root  as  well  as  a  spiritual  goal.  The  de- 
velopment also  involves  the  unfolding  of  the  con- 
stitutional powers  of  man  as  well  as  his  abstract 
spiritual  capacities.  For  a  long  time  the  develop- 
ment remains  on  the  plane  of  the  natural  without 
attaining  to  the  consciously  spiritual;  but  all  the 
while  it  is  the  development  of  man  in  a  divinely 
ordered  scheme ;  and  all  the  phases  and  factors  of 
this  scheme  have  their  place  and  function  in  the 
divine  plan  for  men. 

Of  course,  in  such  a  scheme  our  traditional  cat- 
egories of  the  saved  and  the  unsaved  cannot  be 
applied  in  any  hard-and-fast  manner,  but  must 
be  limited  to  a  relative  significance.  They  have 
a  value  in  abstract  theory,  and  they  may  express 
a  limit  toward  which  men  are  tending,  but  they 
cannot  be  rigorously  applied  to  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  race.  As  said  before,  men  are  not  so  much 
saved  as  they  are  becoming  saved ;  and  men  are 
not  so  much  lost  as  they  are  becoming  lost.  The 


220  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

process  is  going  on  ;  the  classes  are  forming ;  but 
we  are  totally  unable  to  form  any  fixed  classifi- 
cation of  these  living  men  and  women  about  us. 
The  various  traditional  tests  are  grotesque  in 
their  inadequacy,  when  they  are  not  purely  me- 
chanical and  non-moral. 

Human  beings  are  carried  on  in  the  begin- 
nings of  their  existence  as  unconsciously  as 
nature  itself.  They  are  borne  along  Hke  the 
rocks  and  the  trees,  the  earth  and  the  stars,  with- 
out any  sense  of  the  will  and  the  purpose  which 
underlie  their  motion.  But  it  is  God's  thought 
for  men  that  they  shall  not  always  be  borne 
along  thus  unconsciously,  but  shall  become  aware 
of  God's  presence  and  purpose  in  their  lives,  and 
shall  reverently  recognize  the  presence,  and  fili- 
ally accept  and  cooperate  with  the  purpose.  They 
are  to  pass  from  the  unconsciousness  of  nature 
and  the  ignorance  of  childhood  to  the  conscious 
recognition  and  acceptance  of  the  divine  will; 
and  then  they  are  to  go  on  with  God  in  deepen- 
ing sympathy  and  growing  fellowship  forever. 

This  is  God's  eternal  thought  for  men,  and  it 
is  not  modified  in  any  way  in  its  essential  nature 
by  the  fact  of  sin.  Of  course,  much  of  what  we 
call  sin  is  error  and  mistake,  arising  from  the 
ignorance  of  men  who  have  to  feel  their  way. 
And   sin   itself,  as  we  find  it  among  men,  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  221 

largely  the  willfulness  of  freedom  which  has  not 
learned  self-control,  rather  than  any  deliberate 
choice  of  evil.  Ignorance  and  untrained  willful- 
ness abound,  and  both  alike  must  be  removed,  or 
they  will  increase  and  lead  to  disaster.  Ignorance 
must  be  enlightened  if  men  are  ever  to  find  the 
way.  The  unchastened  will  must  learn  self- 
restraint  if  it  is  to  run  at  large.  But  during  the 
process  we  must  not  indulge  in  extravagant  con- 
demnation by  bringing  in  the  categories  of  ab- 
stract theological  ethics.  These  have  as  little 
application  to  the  case  as  they  would  have  to  the 
judgment  of  the  family  life. 

This  reference  to  the  family  gives  us  a  hint  of 
how  developing  beings  are  to  be  judged.  The 
father's  desire  is  that  the  children  shall  come  to 
recognize  his  love  and  filially  to  accept  his  com- 
mands. He  desires  that  they  shall  develop  into 
sympathy  and  fellowship  with  himself;  and  not 
until  this  stage  is  reached  is  the  development 
complete.  But  in  the  mean  time  the  children 
belong  to  the  family,  and  have  immeasurable 
value  for  the  father's  heart.  They  know  little  or 
nothing  of  the  love  that  is  lavished  upon  them; 
but  it  is  there,  nevertheless,  and  by  it  they  are 
upborne  and  carried  along.  The  parents  have 
patience  with  the  ignorance,  the  irresponsiveness, 
the  willfulness,  knowing  that  time  and  disciphne 


222  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  some  experience  of  life  are  necessary  to 
bring  the  children  to  any  proper  knowledge  of 
themselves  and  of  their  duties.  Meanwhile  the 
wise  parent  is  not  unduly  distressed  at  childish 
imperfection.  He  knows  it  is  to  be  expected  and 
must  be  borne  with.  He  knows,  too,  that  it  is 
nothing  very  serious  in  itself — it  is  serious  only 
in  its  tendencies ;  and  he  avails  himself  of  all  the 
means  of  discipline,  of  instruction,  of  correction, 
to  prevent  the  evil  tendencies  from  being  realized. 
But  he  would  regard  it  as  in  the  highest  degree 
false  and  abominable  if  one  should  claim  that 
the  little  rebellions  of  childhood  forfeit  member- 
ship in  the  family.  Children  cannot  rebel  to  this 
extent.  Their  ignorance  and  general  lack  of 
insight  make  it  impossible.  What  might  be  pos- 
sible with  angels,  we  cannot  tell.  What  doom 
should  follow  rebellion  committed  in  the  full 
light  of  knowledge  and  with  full  insight  into  its 
evil  nature,  might  be  hard  to  say.  But  human 
life  is  not  of  this  sort,  and  cannot  be  treated  in 
this  way.  Such  discussion  must  be  limited  to 
treatises  on  the  sin  of  the  devil  and  his  angels; 
it  has  no  application  to  human  conditions. 

But  we  are  sinners.  Yes,  but  not  outcasts.  But 
we  are  rebels.  No,  we  are  prodigal  sons.  And 
God's  grace  is  such  that  his  essential  will  for  us 
remains  unchanged,  that  we  should  become  aware 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  223 

of  his  loving  purpose  for  us,  and  should  accept  it 
in  filial  submission,  and  work  together  with  him 
in  building  up  his  kingdom  among  men.  And 
this,  too,  we  understand  from  the  side  of  the  fam- 
ily again.  The  supreme  desire  of  the  prodigal's 
father  was  that  the  prodigal  should  come  home 
to  him,  the  father;  and  the  supreme  duty  of  the 
prodigal  was  to  go  home  in  the  spirit  of  penitence, 
and  devote  himself  to  doing  his  father's  will.  And 
we,  as  prodigal  sons  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  have 
the  same  all-inclusive  duty. 

How  the  forgiveness  of  sin  is  made  possible  has 
been  the  subject  of  much  theory,  largely  abstract 
and  often  unedifying.  In  fact,  there  is  no  com- 
pletely satisfactory  theory  on  the  subject,  sup- 
posing any  theory  is  needed.  We  find  various 
conceptions  given  in  the  Scriptures,  which  are 
mutually  inconsistent  when  taken  in  strict  literal- 
ness,  and  some  of  which  would  be  immoral.  This 
shows  that  they  are  not  to  be  taken  literally,  but 
must  be  viewed  as  adumbrations  of  the  truth ;  not 
the  truth  itself,  but  ways  of  putting  it.  And  these 
views  are  to  be  understood  psychologically  rather 
than  logically;  as  expressions  of  life  rather  than 
as  statutory  enactments.  Taken  in  the  former 
way,  they  are  full  of  significance  and  truth ;  taken 
in  the  latter  way,  they  become  mechanical,  irra- 
tional, and  pernicious.  But  in  any  case  this  ques- 


224  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

tion  belongs  to  theology  and  not  to  religious  ex- 
perience. However  it  may  be  brought  about,  or 
whatever  hidden  mystery  there  may  lie  in  the 
divine  nature,  the  one  thing  we  have  to  proclaim 
is  the  grace  of  God,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the 
divine  help  for  all  those  who  truly  seek  it.  The 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is  essentially  a  revela- 
tion of  his  grace  and  his  gracious  disposition  to- 
ward us.  He  has  sent  his  Son  to  proclaim  this,  and 
to  put  it  beyond  all  doubt  forever.  The  Father's 
heart  yearns  after  the  prodigal  children ;  and  all 
that  we  have  to  do  is  to  come  home  in  penitence 
and  humility,  trusting  in  his  mercy  and  seeking  to 
do  his  will.  Whatever  is  more  than  this  belongs  to 
theology,  and  may  possibly  be  important  in  that 
field.  But  the  prodigal's  duty  is  to  go  home;  and 
for  this  he  needs  no  theory  of  the  atonement,  no 
doctrine  of  substitution,  or  of  imputed  righteous- 
ness, or  of  ransom  paid  to  the  devil,  or  of  govern- 
mental exigencies  happily  provided  for ;  but  solely 
the  desire  to  find  the  Father's  help  and  favor  and 
forgiveness.  And  this  conception  of  God,  as  full 
of  grace  and  compassion,  as  ready  to  forgive  the 
penitent  soul,  and  to  give  it  power  to  become  the 
child  of  God  in  the  spirit,  is  the  central  idea  of 
the  gospel. 

If  these  things  are  so,  then  the  essential  mat- 
ter of  Christian  teaching  is  simplified.  God's  aim 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  225 

is  to  bring  men  to  the  recognition  of  his  presence 
and  purpose  in  their  lives  and  to  a  filial  accept- 
ance of  that  purpose  in  all  their  conduct.  If  men 
are  ignorant  of  that  purpose,  we  must  teach 
them.  If  they  ignore  it,  or  turn  away  from  it,  we 
must  warn  them.  If  they  seek  after  God,  we 
must  declare  his  infinite  nearness  and  his  gracious 
condescension.  If  they  turn  from  their  evil  ways, 
we  must  proclaim  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  The 
whole  matter  will  be  clear  if  we  bear  in  mind 
what  God's  purpose  is  for  men.  And  the  duty  of 
the  inquirer  is  equally  plain.  Let  him  at  once 
beffin  to  do  the  will  of  God  so  far  as  he  knows 
it,  trusting  in  the  divine  mercy  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin  and  for  all  needed  help.  "  Let  the 
wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man 
his  thouschts:  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord, 
and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  to  our 
God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon."  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  "  if  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart, 
the  Lord  will  not  hear  me  " ;  and  he  ought  not 
to  hear  me. 

What,  then,  does  God  require  of  us?  Various 
answers  are  given,  all  of  which  come  to  the  same 
thing.  An  old  prophet  found  the  requirement  in 
doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and  walking  humbly 
with  God.  Loving  submission  and  active  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  God  is  another  formula.  Seek 


226  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

to  live  so  as  to  please  God  in  all  things  is  still 
another.  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — that 
is,  become  his  disciple  and  follower — is  another. 
But  they  all  mean  the  same  thing.  We  are  not 
required  to  have  affecting  views  of  our  sins,  or  a 
sense  of  our  deep  unworthiness,  or  an  insight 
into  theology  of  any  sort,  but  we  are  required  to 
surrender  ourselves  to  God  to  do  his  will,  and 
then  at  once  set  about  our  Father's  business. 

But  we  are  not  yet  converted,  or  born  again, 
or  saved.  What  has  been  said  thus  far  smacks 
of  legality  and  good  works,  and  seems  to  make 
nothing  of  faith  and  the  new  birth  and  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit ;  and  these  things  are  the  very 
gist  of  spiritual  religion. 

In  this  objection  we  have  an  almost  complete 
list  of  the  confusion  and  misunderstandings 
which  have  darkened  the  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject. We  must  consider  them  singly. 

Underlying  this  objection  there  is  a  secret 
reference  to  the  theology  of  abstraction.  Abstract 
law  and  abstract  justice  are  supposed  to  have 
claims  upon  us  which  must  be  met  before  we  can 
become  children  of  God ;  and  surely  our  thought 
of  conversion  must  largely  concern  itself  with 
these.  But  here  we  must  again  remind  ourselves 
that  these  questions  belong  to  speculative  theo- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  227 

logy  and  not  to  experience.  If  we  were  giving  a 
philosophy  of  Christian  doctrine,  these  questions 
might  come  up ;  but  they  are  out  of  place  when 
we  are  preaching  the  gospel.  And  we  must  fur- 
ther remind  ourselves  that  the  claims,  whatever 
they  may  be,  have  been  met ;  and  the  difficidties, 
whatever  they  may  be,  have  been  removed;  so 
that  we  have  to  consider  only  the  practical 
aspects  of  Christian  doctrine.  We  turn  over  the 
speculative  and  philosophical  questions  to  the 
theologian,  and  continue  to  occupy  ourselves 
with  the  practical  life. 

There  are  many  important  theological  terms 
and  phrases  which,  from  long  use  and  thought- 
lessness, have  worn  so  smooth  as  to  have  lost 
most  of  their  meaning;  and  the  only  way  to 
restore  them  to  significance  seems  to  be  to  look 
directly  at  the  facts  from  which  the  terms  arise. 
Proceeding  in  this  way,  we  discover  that  there  is 
a  vast  deal  of  wrong  thinking  in  the  world,  not 
merely  erroneous  thinking  as  in  speculative  mat- 
ters, but  wrong  practical  thinking.  Men  see 
things  out  of  their  right  relations.  They  misjudge 
values  and  invert  their  relative  importance.  They 
have  their  minds  full  of  these  misconceptions, 
and  practical  confusion  and  misdirection  result. 
Hence,  the  first  condition  of  a  new  and  better 
life  is  to  repent;  that  is,  men  must  change  their 


228  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

minds  or  their  ways  of  thinking  ahout  things. 
The  word  translated  "repentance"  means  just 
this,  to  change  one's  mind.  This  is  the  Christian, 
or  New  Testament,  idea  of  repentance;  and  this 
is  the  first  condition  for  entering  into  the  king- 
dom of  God.  It  is  not  a  question  of  getting  to 
heaven,  but  of  entering  into  that  kingdom  which 
is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost;  and,  of  course,  no  one  can  enter  this 
kingdom  except  by  attaining  to  the  spirit,  the 
temper,  the  way  of  thinking,  in  which  the  king- 
dom consists. 

Again,  men  are  traveling  the  wrong  road  or  in 
the  wrong  direction.  They  are  moving  away  from 
life  and  from  the  highest  things.  They  are  on  the 
downward  grade.  Hence  they  must  be  converted, 
that  is,  must  turn  around,  if  they  would  enter  into 
life.  This  is  the  New  Testament  idea  of  conversion. 
In  the  authorized  version  the  translation  makes  it 
appear  as  a  passive  process  in  which  we  are  acted 
upon:  for  instance,  repent  and  be  converted; 
whereas  the  Greek  verb  is  active,  and  is  so  rendered 
in  the  revised  version.  Conversion,  then,  is  a  turn- 
ing from  the  wrong  road  into  the  right  one.  It  is 
not  to  be  understood  in  a  metaphysical  sense,  as 
implying  some  change  in  the  substance  of  the 
soul ;  nor  in  a  theological  sense,  as  implying  some 
difficult  forensic  adjustment  in  the  court  of  heaven 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  229 

whereby  the  antithesis  of  justice  and  mercy  is 
happily  mediated.  It  is  to  be  understood  solely  as 
implying  the  opposition  between  the  contents 
and  direction  of  the  new  life  and  those  of  the 
old. 

In  the  same  way  the  new  birth  is  to  be  under- 
stood. If  we  consider  the  contents  of  the  earthly 
life,  its  low  aims  and  maxims,  —  and  hence  its 
opposition  to  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  —  we  see 
that  the  change  required  for  passing  into  the 
spiritual  life  is  very  strikingly  called  a  new  birth, 
or  a  birth  from  above.  St.  Paul  called  it  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead.  Both  expressions  mean 
the  same  thing,  and  both  are  equally  metaphor- 
ical. They  are  to  be  understood  from  the  side  of 
life,  and  not  from  the  side  of  theology.  When 
thus  understood  they  are  striking  and  expres- 
sive ;  but  when  they  are  taken  for  a  hidden  meta- 
physical process  they  lose  all  intelligible  mean- 
ing, and  become  an  opaque  theological  wonder. 
Without  doubt  the  Holy  Spirit  must  assist  us  in 
our  efforts.  The  weak  will  must  be  strengthened, 
the  dull  conscience  must  be  enlightened,  the  way- 
ward affections  must  be  fixed ;  and  in  all  this  we 
need  the  co-working  of  God.  But  we  always  need 
this.  And  whatever  mystery  may  attach  thereto, 
its  effect  for  us,  and  the  only  intelligible  mean- 
ing we  can  ascribe  to  it,  must  consist  in  the  turn- 


230  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ing  of  heart  and  will  toward  God,  in  the  set  pur- 
pose to  please  and  to  serve  him. 

The  same  thing  must  be  said  of  salvation  or 
being  saved.  This  also  is  to  be  ethically  under- 
stood. What  may  be  possible  in  the  way  of  a  fo- 
rensic understanding,  we  leave  to  theologians  to 
decide;  but  in  any  case  salvation  must  be  ethically 
understood,  or  we  are  landed  in  artificial  hocus- 
pocus,  if  not  in  downright  immorality.  To  be  sure, 
St.  Paul  used  the  terms  of  the  Roman  law  very 
freely  to  set  forth  the  great  salvation,  and  in  this 
he  has  generally  been  followed  by  Protestant  theo- 
logians. But  it  has  long  been  apparent  that  these 
terms  are  not  to  be  taken  in  a  rigid  literal  sense. 
They  must  be  seen  as  metaphors  or  ways  of  put- 
ting, and  must  be  interpreted  from  the  side  of  the 
moral  life,  and  not  by  the  dictionary  alone.  To 
love  God  and  to  seek  to  serve  and  please  him 
is  the  sum  of  human  duty,  and  it  is  forever  in- 
credible that  God  should  demand  any  more  or  be 
satisfied  with  any  less.  The  divine  aim  is  to  bring 
men  into  the  loving  recognition  and  acceptance 
of  the  divine  will.  Forgiveness  by  the  Heavenly 
Father  is  no  more  difiicult  than  forgiveness  by  an 
earthly  father,  and  in  both  cases  what  is  desired 
is  the  establishment  of  the  filial  spirit  in  the  heart 
and  will  of  the  wayward  child.  And  this  is  salva- 
tion in  the  ethical  sense,  and  the  only  salvation 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  231 

with  which  we  have  any  practical  concern.  Sal- 
vation conceived  as  something  possessed  by  one 
and  not  possessed  by  another  of  similar  spirit  and 
life,  or  conceived  as  depending  on  some  device  of 
celestial  bookkeeping,  or  as  depending  on  the  per- 
formance of  some  rite  or  the  utterance  of  some 
formula,  has  no  moral  contents  at  all,  but  sinks 
to  the  level  of  magical  incantations. 

The  importance  of  conversion  in  the  Christian 
sense  of  the  term  cannot  be  overestimated.  But 
the  popular  thought  is  not  Christian.  For  it  the 
test  of  conversion  is  about  this:  Have  they  had 
some  rhapsodic  experience  or  some  great  emo- 
tional rapture?  Have  strange  and  extraordinary 
psychological  events  taken  place  in  their  con- 
sciousness ?  If  not,  then  they  may  be  "  moral," 
but  they  are  not  converted.  Probably  even  yet 
many  churches  could  be  found  where  the  serious 
purpose  to  lead  a  religious  life  in  reverent  de- 
pendence on  God  for  help  would  be  a  far  more 
doubtful  proof  of  conversion  than  would  be  fur- 
nished by  some  emotional  ecstasy ;  and  apparently 
little  suspicion  of  the  dismal  blunder  would  be 
aroused  even  if  the  person  should  fail  to  manifest 
in  daily  life  any  real  love  for  God  and  righteous- 
ness. But  in  this  popular  sense  no  one  is  under 
any  obligation  to  be  converted ;  neither  in  this 
sense  does  it  matter  in  the  least  whether  one  be 


232  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

converted  or  not.  Dr.  Cuyler,  in  his  autobio- 
graphy, "  Recollections  of  a  Long  Life,"  says 
that  he  cannot  fix  the  time  or  place  of  his  con- 
version. He  was  led  gradually  along,  and  grew 
into  a  rehgious  life  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  working  through  his  mother's  influence. 
And  Dr.  Washington  Gladden  has  this  to  say  of 
Phillips  Brooks :  — 

When  Dr.  Vinton  was  spoken  to  about  this  plan 
of  studying  for  the  ministry,  he  answered  that  confir- 
mation was  supposed  to  precede  theological  study,  and 
that  conversion  was  regarded  as  a  requisite  for  con- 
firmation. Phillips  Brooks  answered  that  he  did  not 
know  what  conversion  meant.  The  reply  is  somewhat 
startling.  Probably,  the  conventional  notion  of  con- 
version which  had  been  enforced  upon  him  was  one 
that  he  did  not  then  understand,  and,  perhaps,  never 
did.  But  if  conversion  means  the  resolute  turning  of 
the  soul  to  God  with  the  purpose  of  obedience,  he  had, 
beyond  a  doubt,  already  experienced  it.  Dr.  Vinton 
knew  the  young  man  too  well  to  be  troubled  by  this 
frank  confession,  and  he  counseled  him  to  go  at  once 
to  the  Seminary  of  the  Episcopal  Church  at  Alexan- 
dria, Virginia.  Thither  he  betook  himself,  and  there, 
for  three  memorable  years,  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
work  of  preparing  himself  for  his  chosen  calling. 

Such  cases  make  manifest  how  ignorant  both 
of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  religious  life  those 
persons  are  who  insist  on  dates  and  "  frames  "  as 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  233 

marks  of  conversion.  In  that  sense  neither  of 
these  good  and  great  men  was  ever  converted. 
But  in  the  true  Christian  sense  of  turning  toward 
God  they  were  converted ;  and  they  remained 
converted  in  the  sense  of  ever  facing  toward  God 
and  working  with  him.  Such  cases,  indeed,  are 
the  rule  with  the  non-revival  churches.  It  is  said 
that  not  one  in  ten  members  of  the  Moravian 
communion  can  fix  on  any  date  when  he  became 
a  Christian ;  and  the  same  is  true  for  the  large 
majority  of  the  members  of  the  German  churches, 
who  still  are  living  lives  of  faith  and  trust  in  God. 
The  emphasis  on  conversion  as  a  turning  to- 
ward God  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  turned 
away  from  him  in  lives  of  wickedness  cannot  be 
overdone ;  but  the  emphasis  on  conversion  as  a 
special  emotional  experience  with  striking  psy- 
chological attendants  is  illiteracy,  both  Scrip- 
tural and  religious.  It  is  a  narrow  provincialism 
rather  than  a  feature  of  universal  Christianity, 
and  it  is  increasingly  confusing  to  an  increasing 
number  of  thoughtful  persons.  The  manifest 
remedy  is  to  return  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel 
and  insist  on  obedience  as  the  test  of  discipleship, 
and  reject  all  others.  Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  we 
shall  escape  those  non-ethical  conversions  which 
are  the  product  of  neuropathology  or  social  con- 
tagion ;  and,  on  the  other,  we  shall  no  longer  con- 


234  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

fuse  honest  inquirers  by  sending  them  to  grope 
in  the  labyrinths  of  obscure  emotional  psychology 
■which  has  been  mistaken  for  religion. 

But  what  of  the  supernatural  in  the  religious 
life?  We  have  spoken  of  men  changing  their 
minds  and  converting  themselves,  whereas  they 
supremely  need  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this 
work.  These  reflections  will  naturally  occur  to 
those  who  fail  to  distinguish  between  the  theo- 
logical standpoint  and  that  of  conscious  expe- 
rience. But  what  we  have  said  involves  no  denial 
of  the  supernatural.  Without  doubt  men  need 
help  from  above  in  effecting  these  changes,  but 
no  more  than  they  need  it  in  the  spiritual  life  in 
general.  And  however  much  supernatural  assist- 
ance may  be  needed,  the  thing  to  be  reached  is 
the  changed  mind  and  heart,  or  the  change  of 
thought  and  feeling  and  direction  of  life.  And 
the  supernatural  reveals  itself  in  this  power  to 
become  the  children  of  God,  and  not  at  all  in 
any  scenic  or  hippodromic  manifestations.  In 
the  former  sense  we  affirm  the  supernatural  with 
all  conviction.  Of  course  we  cannot  effectively 
turn  to  God  without  divine  help,  and  we  can- 
not persevere  in  righteousness  without  divine 
help.  The  saintliest  souls  know  this  best.  Without 
our  knowing  precisely  when  or  how,  the  Pelagian 
controversy  has  become  obsolete.  The  Pelagians 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  235 

no  longer  even  "  vainly  talk."  But  while  we 
maintain  with  all  strenuousness  that  God  must 
work  in  us,  we  find  the  marks  of  his  presence 
not  in  signs  and  wonders  of  any  sort,  but  in  the 
renewed  life  and  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit.  And 
the  religious  teacher  must  not  allow  ignorant  and 
excitable  persons  to  mistake  neurological  disturb- 
ances, without  any  ethical  contents,  for  divine 
manifestation.  Untrained  persons,  of  wonder-lov- 
ing mental  habit,  easily  fall  into  this  mistake, 
and  they  must  be  guarded  against  it. 

And  from  this  concrete  ethical  standpoint, 
again,  the  meaning  of  sin  and  the  sinful  life  is 
equally  clear.  The  gist  of  the  sinful  life  consists 
in  the  willingness  to  do  wrong  and  the  unwilling- 
ness to  do  right.  Some  dealers  in  abstractions  have 
thought  to  find  something  deeper  than  this,  and 
they  have  proclaimed  that  sin  is  a  nature,  and 
that  its  nature  is  guilt.  With  such  notions  no- 
thing but  a  web  of  abstract  fictions  can  be  woven. 
And  others,  who  have  rejected  this  view,  have 
often  been  so  occupied  with  denying  the  exist- 
ence of  any  abstract  sin  that  they  have  overlooked 
the  undeniable  fact  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
concrete  wrong-doing  among  men,  and  that  this 
wrong-doing  must  be  done  away  with  if  men  are 
to  enter  into  life.  It  would  tend  to  real  progress 
if  religious  teachers  would  postpone  the  study  of 


236  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

sin  in  the  abstract  until  we  have  overcome  this 
willingness  to  do  wrong  and  this  unwillingness 
to  do  right,  from  which  both  society  and  the 
individual  so  grievously  suffer.  If  this  state  of 
mind  could  be  replaced  by  the  love  and  practice 
of  righteousness,  we  should  have  no  practical 
concern  about  abstract  sin. 

We  have  made  this  excursion  into  theology 
because  the  phrases  examined  constantly  recur  in 
the  language  of  experience,  and  give  it  a  peculiar 
form.  Our  conviction  is  that  these  phrases  are 
largely  misunderstood  from  taking  the  imphed 
metaphor  for  a  literal  fact,  or  from  interpreting 
them  by  the  dictionary  instead  of  by  life.  But 
however  this  may  be,  it  is  clear  that  the  theo- 
logical doctrine  concerning  these  matters  must 
not  be  confused  with  the  data  of  conscious  expe- 
rience. Whatever  mysterious  Godward  relations 
these  doctrines  may  have  is  no  practical  concern 
of  ours,  and  will  doubtless  be  arranged  for  with- 
out our  aid.  This  is  a  happy  circumstance  for 
most  of  us.  A  reputable  work  on  theology  lies  on 
my  table,  in  which  ninety-seven  octavo  pages 
are  devoted  to  "  Theories  of  Salvation  "  !  But 
for  the  consciousness  of  the  disciple,  nothing  is 
to  be  demanded  or  expected  beyond  the  surrender, 
the  devotion,  the  obedience,  of  the  filial  spirit. 
Theology  is  good,  important,  and  even  necessary 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  237 

in  its  place ;  but  we  do  not  bring  men  to  God  by 
means  of  theology.  Nor  should  we  confuse  the 
mind  of  any  seeker  after  God  by  trying  to  cast 
his  thought  and  experience  in  any  dogmatic  mould; 
as  if  one  could  not  find  God  without  setting  forth 
a  scheme  of  evangelical  theology,  duly  recogniz- 
ing the  several  persons  of  the  Trinity  and  their 
respective  offices,  specifying  the  provisions  of  the 
atonement,  and  going  in  order  through  the  pro- 
gramme of  repentance,  faith,  justification,  regen- 
eration, adoption,  and  sanctification.  Whatever 
value  such  a  programme  may  have  is  theological, 
not  psychological;  it  represents  abstractions  of 
theory  rather  than  facts  of  consciousness.  The 
two  points  of  view  should  never  be  confounded. 
The  life  of  trust  and  obedience  is  not  to  be  se- 
cured by  an  examination  in  the  catechism ;  and 
for  bringing  sinners  into  the  kingdom  of  God 
we  need  no  more  theology  than  is  contained  in 
the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  Let  the  prod- 
igals come  home,  trusting  in  the  Father's  love 
and  mercy,  and  take  their  places  as  penitent  and 
obedient  children  in  their  Father's  house.  This 
is  the  invitation  of  the  gospel. 

Thus  far  we  have  warned  against  confounding 
experience  and  theology,  but  we  have  said  little 
about  the  contents  of  experience  itself.  We  come 


238  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

now  to  consider  this  question,  for  here  also  there 
has  been  much  confusion.  A  good  many  worthy 
people,  instead  of  seeking  to  keep  the  command- 
ments of  God  and  walk  in  his  holy  ways,  are  try- 
ing to  have  an  experience  of  some  sort  as  the  test 
and  verification  of  their  religion.  Here  the  trouble 
is  due,  not  to  a  confusion  of  experience  with 
theology,  but  to  the  setting  up  of  a  type  of  expe- 
rience as  alone  truly  religious,  so  that  the  inner 
life  must  conform  to  it,  or  be  rejected  as  spurious. 

This  error  is  not  without  some  foundation. 
The  reaction  against  the  mechanical  religion  of 
external  rite  and  sacerdotal  proxy  could  not  fail 
to  emphasize  the  religion  of  the  inner  life.  Be- 
sides, it  is  quite  incredible,  if  God  is  our  Father 
and  we  are  his  children,  that  this  relation  should 
find  no  expression  in  our  spiritual  experience. 
Otherwise,  in  prayer  there  is  no  communion,  in 
holy  living  there  is  no  support,  and  the  soul  is 
without  any  contact  with  the  divine.  In  that  case 
religion  can  only  become  a  mechanical  ritual 
again.  Here,  then,  is  a  real  foundation  for  the 
demand  for  a  self-evidencing  inner  life,  in  which 
the  soul  shall  become  aware  of  divine  help  and 
shall  know  that  it  is  not  alone,  because  the 
Father  is  with  it. 

But  this  well-founded  demand  has  often  been 
so  misunderstood  and  misinterpreted  as  to  become 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  239 

a  source  of  great  confusion  and  error.  Various 
subjective  tests  of  a  purely  psychological  and 
non-ethical  type  have  been  constructed,  to  which 
the  genuine  religious  life  must  conform;  and 
these  have  often  wrought  no  small  confusion. 
We  now  seek  to  clear  up  this  subject. 

Among  the  doctrines  of  this  kind  which  have 
a  large  factor  of  truth  but  which  are  often 
twisted  into  error  is  the  witness  of  the  Spirit, 
held  in  some  form  by  all  churches,  but  especially 
elaborated  and  insisted  upon  by  my  ecclesiastical 
clansmen,  the  Methodists. 

It  is  hard  to  get  along  without  this  doctrine, 
in  order  to  express  the  conviction  of  the  saints  of 
all  ages  of  the  indwelling  God.  Religion  is  not 
all  on  one  side,  as  if  we  prayed  into  the  empty 
air  with  not  even  an  echo  in  response.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  how  easily  the  doctrine  can  be 
distorted.  The  words  are  more  definite  than  the 
experience,  and  readily  awaken  false  expectations 
when  interpreted  by  the  dictionary.  Thus  it  is 
said  to  be  a  fact  of  experience,  and  not  merely  a 
doctrine  of  theology.  And  it  is  further  said  by 
many  that  no  one  may  count  himself  a  true  dis- 
ciple, or  member  of  the  divine  household,  until 
he  has  received  this  witness.  And  many  good 
persons — some  of  the  best,  indeed  —  have  been 
greatly  troubled  thereby.    The  phrase  seems  to 


240  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

call  for  a  miraculous  manifestation,  in  which 
some  external  power  stands  manifestly  apart  from 
ourselves,  and  testifies  that  we  are  received  into 
the  divine  favor.  And  many  persons,  like  the 
minister  before  mentioned,  have  watched  and 
waited  for  some  such  manifestation,  and  as 
nothing  has  ever  happened  to  them  which  con- 
tained any  such  psychological  break,  or  which 
revealed  any  such  apparition  of  another  person- 
ality within  the  field  of  consciousness,  they  are 
left  to  doubt  whether  they  ever  had  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit.  And  as  this  witness  is  supposed  to 
be  a  necessary  mark  of  discipleship,  they  are  left 
in  doubt  whether  they  are  members  of  the  divine 
family  at  all.  There  is  special  need  of  clearing 
up  our  thought  on  this  subject,  lest  the  truth  in 
the  doctrine  be  lost  and  only  destructive  error  be 
left  in  its  stead. 

Two  considerations  must  be  premised:  One  is, 
that  the  doctrine,  whatever  it  may  be,  must  not 
be  held  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  void  the  gos- 
pel. The  other  is,  that  the  experience,  whatever 
it  may  be,  cannot  be  confined  to  any  single 
religious  body. 

The  first  point  is  by  no  means  always  regarded. 
That  one  should  commit  himself  in  faith  and  obe- 
dience to  the  keeping  and  service  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  is  not  thought  to  be  enough.  That  one 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  241 

should  enter  upon  the  Kfe  of  discipleship,  trust- 
ing in  the  promises  of  the  gospel  and  seeking  to 
do  God's  will,  would  not  suffice.  One  might  do  all 
this,  and  still  have  no  right  to  assume  the  place 
of  a  son  in  the  Father's  house.  For  this  he  must 
wait  until  he  receives  the  witness ;  and  the  result 
often  is  that  the  object  of  faith  and  trust  is  not 
Christ  and  the  Father  whom  he  revealed,  but 
rather  and  only  certain  feelings  in  the  disciple. 
If  these  are  present,  he  has  confidence ;  if  absent, 
he  has  not  found  the  Lord,  or  the  Lord  has  hid- 
den his  face.  Thus  the  gospel  itself  is  made  void 
by  thrusting  some  subjective  test  between  the 
soul  and  its  Saviour,  the  only  object  of  faith  and 
trust. 

And  that  this  is  no  fictitious  danger  appears  from 
the  recent  utterance  of  a  distinguished  Methodist 
ecclesiastic  :  "  John  Wesley  was  sent  out  to  preach 
a  knowable  religion  —  that  a  man  might  know 
that  his  sins  are  forgiven.  There  is  only  one  way 
for  him  to  learn  that.  Pardon  is  a  change  in  the 
divine  mind  concerning  the  sinner ;  whereas  God 
regarded  him  as  a  guilty  sinner,  he  now  regards 
him  as  a  pardoned  sinner.  No  one  but  God  knows 
this  change  till  he  tells  it.  This  is  the  old  doc- 
trine of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  When  we  get 
a  man  down  before  the  altar,  we  do  not  tell  him 
his  sins  are  forgiven.  We  do  not  know.  We  sim- 


242  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ply  hold  him  to  it  till  God  tells  him ;  then  the 
sinner  knows  it." 

According  to  this  master  in  Israel,  then,  it 
would  seem  that  we  may  not  venture  on  or  rest  in 
the  promises  of  God  without  this  special  expe- 
rience. We  may  indeed  commit  ourselves  to  his 
service  in  faith  and  obedience,  trusting  in  his 
mercy;  but  we  may  not  have  any  confidence  that 
our  Heavenly  Father  accepts  us  even  then,  be- 
cause we  cannot  tell  what  takes  place  in  the  divine 
mind.  This  is  a  heresy  from  every  standpoint, 
Scriptural  and  Methodistic  alike.  Wesley  himself 
expressly  rejected  this  interpretation  of  the  doc- 
trine. 

Since  I  began  writing,  I  have  had  a  concrete 
illustration  of  the  mischief  of  such  undiscriminat- 
ing  teaching.  A  ministerial  correspondent  tells 
me  of  a  woman  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence 
in  his  congregation,  who  for  nineteen  years  wan- 
dered in  a  horror  of  great  darkness  because  of 
such  erroneous  teaching.  She  had  been  told: 
"Don't  take  anybody's  word.  When  you  are 
forgiven,  you  will  know  it.  God  will  tell  you." 
Almost  the  exact  language,  it  will  be  observed, 
of  the  dignitary  before  mentioned. 

How  completely  such  an  interpretation  makes 
void  the  gospel  is  manifest.  Faith  and  trust  in 
Christ  and  obedience  to  the  commandments  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  243 

God  count  for  nothing,  apart  from  this  special 
manifestation.  In  opposition  to  such  heresy  let  the 
Church  continue  to  proclaim  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  to  all  who  truly  and  earnestly  repent  of  their 
sins,  and  intend  to  lead  a  new  life,  following  the 
commandments  of  God  and  walking  from  hence- 
forth in  his  holy  ways. 

And  the  second  point  mentioned  must  also  be 
borne  in  mind.  The  witness  of  the  Spirit  as  an 
experience  of  the  Christian  cannot  be  limited  to 
any  religious  body.  Conceived  as  a  doctrine,  it 
might  well  be  held  by  a  single  body ;  but  con- 
ceived as  an  experience,  it  must  be  the  common 
property  of  all  saints,  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  to 
saintship.  It  would  be  grotesque  and  fantastic  to 
the  last  degree  to  suppose  that  God  does  some- 
thing for  Methodist  saints  which  he  does  not  do 
for  Baptist,  or  Congregational,  or  Presbyterian,  or 
Catholic  saints;  and  it  would  be  an  impossible  lack 
of  charity  to  hold  that  only  Methodists  are  saints. 
Most  religious  bodies  have  a  few  disciples  of  rigor 
and  vigor  who  work  out  a  sort  of  high-churchism 
for  their  own  people,  and  question  the  disciple- 
ship  of  other  bodies ;  but  no  sane  Methodist  would 
venture  to  construct  his  high-churchism  on  this 
line  of  the  witness.  And  this  fact  shows  either 
that  the  doctrine  must  be  a  theological  one  and 
not  a  datum  of  experience,  or  else  that  the  expe- 


244  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

rience  itself,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  not  so  defi- 
nite as  to  exclude  varying  interpretations. 

Returning  now  to  the  doctrine,  we  find  theo- 
logians very  uncertain  about  it.  There  is  general 
agreement  that  it  is  most  important,  but  there  is 
little  agreement  as  to  what  it  means.  That  the 
phrase  itself  is  not  to  be  taken  in  strict  Hteralness 
is  manifest.  No  outside  being  appears  within  the 
disciple's  consciousness  and  literally  testifies  to  a 
celestial  fact  concerning  his  standing  in  the  court 
of  heaven.  This  is  what  our  traditional  language 
would  lead  us  to  expect,  but  there  is  no  warrant  for 
such  expectation.  The  phrase  itself  as  used  by  Paul 
in  the  classical  passage,  Romans  viii,  16,  seems 
to  grow  out  of  the  ancient  custom  of  adoption. 
Paul  is  trying  to  make  his  readers  know  the  grace 
and  wonder  of  the  great  salvation,  and  avails 
himself  of  all  the  aids  which  familiar  customs  of 
society  furnish.  Among  others  he  hits  upon  the 
custom  of  adoption  familiar  to  the  ancient  world, 
and  says  :  We  are  not  aliens  and  strangers,  but 
we  are  adopted  into  the  divine  family.  God  has 
sent  forth  into  our  hearts  the  Spirit  of  adoption 
whereby  the  filial  spirit  is  wrought  in  us  and  we 
are  enabled  to  look  up  to  God  as  our  Father.  And 
having  taken  up  this  striking  and  suggestive  fig- 
ure, his  thought  runs  on  to  complete  it.  For  this 
act  of  adoption  was  not  done  in  a  corner  and  out 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  245 

of  sight,  but  in  public  and  before  witnesses,  that 
there  might  be  no  question  about  it  forever  after. 
And  with  this  thought  he  adds :  And  the  Spirit 
itself,  that  same  Spirit  of  adoption,  is  a  fellow 
witness  with  our  spirits,  not  to  our  spirits,  but  a 
fellow  witness  of  the  fact  that  we  are  children  of 
God.  If  Paul  had  not  been  familiar  with  Roman 
law,  there  would  have  been  no  doctrine  of  adop- 
tion and  no  doctrine  of  the  witness. 

It  is  not  now  a  question  of  what  the  work  of 
the  Spirit  within  or  upon  the  soul  may  be,  or  what 
the  function  of  the  Spirit  may  be  in  the  regen- 
eration and  sanctification  of  men.  It  may  be  the 
Spirit  which  works  in  us  the  filial  mind  and  heart, 
which  is  the  essential  meaning  of  adoption.  But 
these  are  theological  questions,  with  which  we 
have  no  present  concern.  We  inquire  only  what 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  may  mean  as  an  event 
in  the  conscious  experience  of  believers.  And  it 
is  plain  that  this  can  be  decided  only  by  experi- 
ence, and  not  by  lexicons  and  dictionaries.  No 
etymological  analysis  of  a  metaphor  will  reveal 
its  meaning. 

The  uncertainty  of  theological  thought  on  this 
subject  is  largely  due  to  the  perennial  confusion 
of  the  standpoints  of  theology  and  consciousness ; 
and  the  aberrations  are  due  to  the  attempt  to 
construct  the  doctrine  as  a  matter  of  experience 


246  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

by  analyzing  the  metaphor.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  direct  and  the  indirect  witness  illus- 
trates the  uncertainty.  The  latter  is  an  inference 
from  the  discerned  presence  of  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit;  but  this  is  not  thought  to  exhaust  the 
doctrine.  According  to  Wesley,  the  direct  witness 
of  the  Spirit  is  ^*  an  inward  impression  upon  the 
souls  of  believers  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  di- 
rectly testifies  to  their  spirits  that  they  are  chil- 
dren of  God."  This  seems  to  be  clear,  but  it  is  not. 
If  the  "  inward  impression"  is  produced  by  God, 
yet  so  that  God  himself  does  not  appear  in  any 
supernatural  manifestation,  then  we  have  a  theo- 
losrical  doctrine  concerning:  the  source  of  the  im- 
pression  ;  but  the  witness  is  indirect.  We  have 
no  supernal  manifestation,  but  the  heart  is 
"strangely  warmed."  But  Mr.  Wesley  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  willing  to  affirm  any  miraculous 
appearance,  but  only  the  conviction  wrought  in 
us  by  the  Spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God ; 
and  this  leaves  us,  so  far  as  the  Spirit  is  concerned, 
with  a  theoloo["ical  doctrine  rather  than  a  fact  of 
consciousness.  An  experience  wrought  in  us  by 
the  Spirit  is  one  thing.  An  experience  in  which 
the  Spirit  is  a  factor  of  our  consciousness  may  be 
quite  another. 

Wesley's  uncertainty  on  this  point  comes  out 
clearly  in  the  series  of  letters  to  Mr.  John  Smith 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  247 

where  this  question  is  discussed.  The  person  who 
writes  under  the  name  of  John  Smith  presses  for 
a  definition  of  the  doctrine,  and  especially  seeks 
to  know  whether  the  experience  involves  any  su- 
pernatural or  miraculous  manifestation.  Wesley 
is  embarrassed  by  the  insistence,  and  finally  falls 
back  on  the  statement  that  he  holds  the  doctrine 
because  it  is  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  —  a  fact 
which  shows  that  he  had  not  clearly  distinguished 
between  the  doctrine  as  a  truth  of  theology  and 
as  a  fact  of  consciousness.  There  is  no  need 
to  fall  back  on  the  Scriptures  for  proof  of  any- 
thing which  we  immediately  experience.  He  also 
admits  elsewhere  that  he  has  known  a  few  good 
persons  who  do  not  seem  to  have  had  the  wit- 
ness. Nevertheless,  it  is  a  doctrine  of  Scripture, 
and  must  be  maintained  on  that  ground.  But  by 
this  time  we  have  a  phrase  which  we  feel  bound 
to  use  rather  than  a  doctrine  which  we  under- 
stand. At  all  events,  it  is  not  an  experience  which 
can  be  made  a  test  of  discipleship  ;  for  good  per- 
sons exist  who  have  not  had  it. 

In  fact,  this  doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  as  held  in  the  Methodist  church,  is  to  be 
historically  rather  than  exegetically  or  psycho- 
logically understood.  We  gather  its  historical 
meaning  from  the  errors  against  which  the  found- 
ers of  Methodism  aimed  their  protest.  These  were 


248  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

twofold.  On  the  one  hand,  the  State  Church  had 
largely  fallen  a  prey  to  sacerdotalism  and  reli- 
gious mechanism.  What  with  baptismal  regen- 
eration and  sacramentarianism,  the  masses  of  its 
adherents  had  fallen  into  the  notion  that  the 
Church  would  look  after  their  salvation;  and 
thus  they  failed  to  attain  to  any  personal  piety. 
In  opposition  to  all  this,  the  Methodist  fathers 
summoned  men  to  heart  religion,  setting  forth 
the  worthlessness  of  forms,  rites,  proxies,  and  in- 
sisting that  every  one  should  for  himself  expe- 
rience the  grace  of  God  in  the  soul.  To  the  hear- 
say and  magic  of  baptismal  regeneration,  and  the 
mechanism  of  rites  and  institutions,  they  opposed 
the  self-evidencing  life  of  the  Spirit. 

Again,  at  that  time  both  the  State  and  the 
Nonconforming  churches  were  largely  under  the 
influence  of  Calvinistic  doctrine,  and  also  of  the 
notion  that  religion  is  preeminently  a  matter  of 
orthodox  belief.  The  Calvinistic  teaching  concern- 
ing the  perseverance  of  the  saints  made  it  morally 
unsafe  to  teach  a  doctrine  of  assurance ;  and  the 
heresy  of  orthodoxy  tended  to  reduce  religion  to 
a  barren  intellectual  assent  to  notional  dogmas. 
In  addition,  God's  goodness  was  so  limited  in  any 
case,  and  the  outlook  for  man  was  so  grim,  that 
there  was  little  room  or  reason  for  joy  in  religion. 

Asrainst  all  these  errors  the  Methodist  fathers 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  249 

protested.  For  them,  religion  must  be  more  than 
a  machinery  of  rites  and  sacraments,  and  more 
than  correctness  of  beHef.  It  was  no  hearsay 
matter,  but  a  conscious  hfe,  which  found  its 
great  witness  in  itself.  They  also  denied  with 
all  vehemence  the  Calvinistic  conception  of  God 
and  his  government,  and  thus  made  love  and  joy 
possible  once  more.  And  to  express  this  convic- 
tion of  life  at  first  hand,  and  this  joy  in  the  Lord, 
they  very  naturally  fell  back  on  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit.  In  the  circumstances  of  the  time  it 
was  practically  a  new  doctrine,  or  a  rediscovery 
of  an  old  one.  But  the  essential  thing  in  it  was 
the  denial  of  the  Calvinistic  nightmare,  the  em- 
phasis on  personal  religion,  and  the  spiritual 
assurance  which  arises  in  the  life  of  faith  and 
obedience.  This  was  historically  the  essential 
meaning  and  strength  of  the  doctrine,  and  this  it 
was  that  kept  it  sane  and  sweet.  It  was  mainly  a 
practical  doctrine,  and  it  was  only  under  polemi- 
cal stress  that  it  ran  off  into  doubtful  exegesis  and 
into  theological  and  metaphysical  interpretations. 
Thus  the  doctrine  became  prominent,  and  while 
thus  practically  held,  it  was  true  and  fundamen- 
tal. The  attempt  to  give  it  a  theoretical  standing 
was  rather  confusing  than  otherwise.  The  multi- 
tudinous experiences  of  joy,  and  even  of  emo- 
tional excitement,  were  gathered  up  into  the  doc- 


250  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

trine ;  and  all  these  were  accepted  as  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit,  because  that  was  the  way  in  which 
we  regarded  the  matter.  Nowadays  more  dis- 
crimination is  needed ;  but  the  essential  conten- 
tion of  the  fathers  must  never  be  lost  sight  of, 
that  religion  is  the  ideal  of  religious  training  and 
development,  and  that  this  personal  life  must 
justify  itself  as  true  and  divine  within  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  disciple  himself. 

Now  looking  away  from  the  form  this  doc- 
trine has  had  in  Methodist  teaching,  the  general 
fact  of  Christian  experience  is  this :  The  sincere 
and  continued  attempt  to  be  disciples  of  Christ 
results  in  the  conviction  that  we  are  in  the  right 
way,  that  we  are  on  the  Lord's  side  and  he  is  on 
our  side ;  and  this  conviction  grows  from  more 
to  more  as  the  life  broadens  and  deepens.  The 
new  life  takes  firmer  hold  and  strikes  deeper 
root;  and  as  the  soul  grows  in  grace  and  the 
knowledofe  of  the  truth,  this  life  becomes  more 
and  more  rooted  in  the  conviction  of  its  divine 
origin.  Under  the  influence  of  Christian  teaching, 
the  believer  will  adjust  his  experience  to  the 
forms  of  Christian  thought  and  doctrine ;  and  as 
we  view  the  Spirit  as  the  immediate  agent  in  the 
purification,  sanctification,  and  upbuilding  of  the 
soul,  we  naturally  come  to  regard  our  graces,  or 
strength,  or  joy,  our  peace,  our  rest  in  God,  as 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  251 

wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit,  as  the  marks  of  his 
presence,  as  the  witness  he  perpetually  bears  in 
us  to  our  being  children  of  God.  And  this  is  all 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  means  in  general.  What 
peculiar  manifestations  it  may  please  God  to 
make  in  certain  crises  of  life  or  moments  of  spirit- 
ual exaltation,  or  what  revelations  he  may  make 
to  particular  persons,  we  may  not  decide;  but 
such  things  are  not  to  be  demanded  of  any  one 
as  conditions  or  marks  of  sonship.  For  the  great 
body  of  believers  the  fact  of  experience  will  be 
what  we  have  described.  If  any  claim  that  they 
have  had  more  abundant  manifestations,  we  do 
not  deny  that  it  may  be  so.  At  the  same  time  we 
reserve  the  right  to  apply  to  all  such  claims  the 
supreme  test :  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 
If,  as  often  happens,  these  alleged  manifestations 
are  accompanied  by  no  increase  of  moral  and 
religious  effectiveness,  they  will  have  no  practi- 
cal significance ;  and  if,  as  is  sometimes  the  case, 
the  receivers  of  the  alleged  manifestations  are  not 
remarkable  for  mental  force  and  moral  character, 
there  will  be  good  ground  for  thinking  that  they 
have  misheard  the  voices. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  witness  as  thus  described 
is  no  witness  but  only  an  inference,  the  answer  is 
that  the  meaning  of  a  doctrine  cannot  be  fixed 
by  analyzing  a  metaphor,  and  that  this  is  the 


252  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

only  "witness  which  it  pleases  God  to  ^ve  to 
most  of  his  children.  But  when  the  doctrine  is  so 
understood  as  to  subordinate  even  our  faith  in 
Christ  and  his  gospel  to  some  form  of  emotional 
experience,  it  becomes  a  pestilent  heresy.  We  are 
not  called  to  have  experiences,  or  witnesses,  or 
manifestations  of  any  sort,  but  to  be  followers  of 
Jesus.  Whatever  experiences  of  joy  or  peace  or 
aspiration  may  come  in  this  life  of  discipleship 
are  to  be  welcomed,  but  they  are  never  to  be 
erected  into  tests  of  salvation. 

Historically,  the  doctrine  of  the  inner  life  as 
held  in  the  Church  has  been  confused  and  am- 
biguous. The  one  feature  that  is  forever  true 
and  important  is  the  emphasis  on  personal  and 
spiritual  religion,  in  distinction  from  all  proxy 
and  mechanical  religion.  This  cannot  be  too 
much  emphasized  as  the  religious  ideal.  But 
along  with  this  has  often  appeared  a  tendency  to 
erect  some  form  of  psychological  experience  into 
religion  itself.  This  has  given  rise  to  much  mis- 
direction and  confusion  which  we  now  consider. 

The  training  and  development  of  souls  as  the 
children  of  God  is  God's  essential  purpose  in  the 
creation  of  men.  Our  human  life  is  to  be  dealt 
with  from  this  point  of  view ;  and  the  religious 
teacher  must  fashion  his  instruction  and  direct 


THE  CHRISTIAN    LIFE  253 

his  effort  in  accordance  with  this  fundamental 
truth.  His  aim  must  be  to  help  men  to  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  divine  purpose,  and  to  bring  them 
into  obedience  to  it.  This  recognition  of  the  di- 
vine will,  this  filial  trust  and  obedience,  are  the 
heart  of  religion  and  the  central  meaning  of  sal- 
vation. But  the  attainment  of  this  end  is  often 
hindered,  and  even  thwarted,  by  misconceptions 
against  which  we  must  be  on  our  guard. 

The  emphasis  which  some  churches  have  placed 
upon  the  emotional  aspects  of  religion  has  not 
infrequently  led  to  grave  distortions  of  the  truth. 
Emotion  is  good ;  and  an  emotionless  religion 
would  be  a  very  questionable  affair.  Nevertheless 
it  is  easy  to  invert  the  true  order,  and  this  has 
often  been  done.  Attention  has  been  withdrawn 
from  the  solemn  surrender  of  the  will  and  life  to 
God  in  order  to  engage  in  a  barren  hunt  after 
emotions.  This  is  inverted  in  every  way,  both 
religiously  and  psychologically.  We  must  make 
clear  to  the  inquirer  that  he  is  to  consider  him- 
self as  no  longer  his  own,  but  as  being  in  all 
things  the  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the 
servant  of  God.  The  exceeding  breadth  and  depth 
and  heig-ht  of  the  commandment  must  be  made 
plain,  so  that  he  may  see  how  all-inclusive  is  the 
service  of  God.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  emo- 
tions are  never  to  be  aimed  at  as  things  by  them- 


264  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

selves  at  all.  In  order  to  be  wholesome  and  ra- 
tional, emotions  must  spring  from  ideas;  and 
religious  emotions  must  spring  from  religious 
ideas.  When  sought  by  themselves  and  for  them- 
selves they  have  neither  rational  nor  moral  sig- 
nificance, but  are  purely  neurological  or  patho- 
losfical.  Reliofious  emotions  of  this  sort  differ  in 
nothing  from  the  excitement  of  the  howling  or 
whirling  dervishes.  This  is  the  source  of  the 
marked  ethical  weakness  of  popular  revival  ser- 
vices, and  of  the  lack  of  moral  fibre  in  so  many 
alleged  conversions. 

It  follows  from  this  that  religious  emotions  are 
not  to  be  directly  sought.  They  are  to  come  as 
the  unforced  attendants  of  our  religious  faith  and 
devotion  and  obedience.  When  thus  coming,  they 
are  wholesome,  helpful,  and  natural.  In  every 
other  case  they  are  unwholesome,  harmful,  and 
unnatural.  Indeed,  emotions,  as  an  affection  of 
the  sensibility,  have  so  complex  a  root,  and  are  so 
complicated  with  physical  conditions,  that  they 
are  generally  worthless  as  a  test  of  will  and  char- 
acter. Even  those  relations  in  daily  life  which 
are  founded  on  affection,  as  the  relations  of  the 
family,  admit  of  no  test  of  the  emotional  sort. 
Devotion  shows  itself  chiefly  in  service ;  and  it  is 
only  at  special  times,  in  some  crisis  perhaps,  that 
the  emotional  sensibility  is  deeply  stirred.  Love 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  255 

itself  abides  in  the  will  rather  than  in  the  feeling, 
and  its  distinguishing  mark  consists  in  the  set 
purpose  to  please  and  to  serve.  And  this  is  true 
of  our  love  for  God.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  con- 
secration of  the  life  and  the  devotion  of  the  will ; 
not  in  ebullitions  of  the  sensibilities,  but  in  the 
fixed  purpose  to  please  and  to  serve.  If,  along 
with  this,  the  heart  should  be  "  strangely  warmed," 
there  is  no  objection  ;  but,  after  all,  the  root  of 
the  matter  must  be  found  in  the  life  of  devotion 
and  service.  "  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  command- 
ments." "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord, 
Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but 
he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven."  *'  And  hereby  we  do  know  that  we  know 
him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments.  He  that 
saith,  I  know  him,  and  keepth  not  his  command- 
ments, is  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him." 
"  Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  com- 
mand you."  Such  passages  as  these  show  that 
the  essential  test  of  discipleship  is  ethical  and 
volitional,  not  emotional;  and  their  frequent  oc- 
currence shows  a  purpose  to  ward  off  the  very 
error  in  question. 

Obedience,  then,  is  the  only  test  of  discipleship 
recognized  by  the  Master ;  and  he  spoke  very 
sharply  of  eloquent  divines  who  prophesied  in 
his  name  and   did  many  wonderful  works,  yet 


256  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

were  workers  of  iniquity.  Though  we  should 
speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels, 
and  had  not  obedience,  we  should  be  but  sound- 
ing brass  and  clanging  cymbals.  And  though  we 
spoke  in  the  social  meeting,  and  were  eloquent  in 
public  prayer,  and  bore  testimony  to  wonderful 
outpourings  and  upliftings  and  spiritual  manifest 
tations  far  beyond  those  of  common  Christians, 
and  had  not  obedience,  it  would  profit  us  nothing. 
And  thouo-h  we  had  a  wonderful  conversion  and 
became  quite  unconscious  through  the  exceeding 
abundance  of  the  outpouring,  and  had  not  obedi- 
ence, we  should  be  nothing.  The  Master  mentions 
none  of  these  things  as  conditions  or  tests  of  dis- 
cipleship ;  but  he  was  very  particular  about  obedi- 
ence. When  he  called  Simon  and  Andrew  and 
James  and  John,  they  left  all  and  followed  him, 
and  thus  became  his  disciples ;  and  the  same  rule 
holds  still. 

A  frequent  consequence  of  this  error  concern- 
ing emotion  is  that  the  attention  of  the  inquirer 
is  diverted  from  the  central  and  essential  thing, 
the  surrender  of  the  will  and  life  to  God,  and 
fixed  upon  having  an  experience.  This  experience 
is  crudely  conceived  as  a  striking  emotional  event, 
which  must  be  of  extraordinary  character  in  order 
to  meet  the  expectation.  Thus  the  volitional  and 
ethical  element,  which  is  essential,  is  subordinated 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  257 

to  a  passive  and  emotional  element,  -whicli  in  any 
case  is  only  a  non-essential  attendant  of  religious 
consecration,  and  which,  in  many  cases,  is  purely 
pathological.  That  it  is  such  in  a  great  many 
cases  appears  from  the  fearful  disproportion  be- 
tween the  number  of  reported  converts  and  the 
number  of  those  received  into  church  membership. 
Who  can  believe  that  such  disproportion  would 
exist,  if  the  inquirer  had  been  rightly  instructed, 
and  had  solemnly,  intelligently,  ethically  devoted 
and  consecrated  himself  to  do  the  will  of  God? 
Emotional  effervescence  may  subside  in  this  way, 
but  intelligent  and  moral  self-consecration  does 
not.  There  is  so  much  confusion  on  this  point  that 
the  majority  of  inquirers  are  aiming  to  have  an 
experience  rather  than  to  surrender  themselves 
to  God  in  faith  and  obedience.  And  with  this 
false  aim  they  fail  to  "  get  through,"  or  to  "  come 
out  into  the  light."  They  are  seeking  after  some 
sign,  instead  of  fixing  their  thought  on  the  sur- 
render of  themselves  in  faith  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
to  be  his  disciples.  Often  enough  the  sign  is  not 
given  them,  and  then  comes  the  familiar  sense 
of  uncertainty  and  artificiality  in  religion. 

In  opposition  to  this  error,  our  attention  should 
always  be  directed  to  securing  filial  submission 
to  the  will  of  God.  The  inquirer  must  be  in- 
structed, if   need    be,    in    Christian    truth.    His 


258  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

thought  must  be  made  familiar  with  the  grace 
of  God  and  the  gracious  provisions  of  the  gospel. 
Peace  and  joy  will  naturally  arise  in  the  penitent 
soul  as  it  contemplates  this  grace  and  yields  it- 
self to  it  in  trust  and  obedience.  But  their  form 
and  measure  will  vary  very  greatly  with  different 
persons  according  to  education,  temperament, 
and  many  other  circumstances.  But  the  disciple 
must  not  concern  himself  about  them.  Loving 
submission  and  active  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God  in  accordance  with  the  promises  of  Christ  are 
the  supreme  and  only  mark  of  Christian  disciple- 
ship.  We  are  not  called  upon  to  have  experiences, 
or  emotional  upheavals,  or  witnesses  of  the  Spirit ; 
but  we  are  called  upon  to  surrender  ourselves  in 
faith  and  humility  to  do  the  will  of  God.  Cease 
to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well,  is  the  only  infallible 
test  of  conversion. 

The  attitude  of  the  will,  then,  is  the  central 
thing  in  the  Christian  life.  But  in  applying  this 
truth  we  must  guard  against  an  extravagance, 
often  amounting  to  positive  error,  which  may 
arise  at  this  point.  "We  are  often  told  that  we 
must  be  willing  to  do  whatsoever  God  may 
require,  to  give  up  all  for  Christ,  etc. ;  and  this 
admits  of  easy  exaggeration.  Formally,  the  state- 
ment is  correct ;  but  the  concrete  meaning  is  not 
always  plain.  Negatively,  the  meaning  is  simple. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  259 

We  must  cease  to  do  evil ;  any  recognized 
iniquity,  impiety,  unrighteousness,  wickedness, 
must  be  put  away  unhesitatingly,  irrevocably, 
forever.  That  one  should  call  himself  the  child 
of  God  while  working  the  works  of  the  devil  is 
not  to  be  thought  of  for  a  moment. 

But  the  positive  contents  of  the  idea  are  very 
crudely  conceived.  We  often  fall  a  prey  to  mere 
abstractions  of  theory  without  duly  regarding  the 
realities  of  life.  Error  here  may  take  a  double 
direction.  We  may  fall  into  an  abstract  concep- 
tion of  renunciation,  and  we  may  misconceive 
the  relation  of  God's  will  to  the  great  every-day 
life  of  work  and  social  relations.  The  former 
error  is  illustrated  by  the  fancy  of  some  of  the 
older  New  England  theologians,  that  no  one 
could  be  saved  who  was  not  willing  to  be  damned 
for  the  glory  of  God.  Of  course,  a  good  closet 
argument  could  be  made  for  this  abomination. 
One  might  say  that,  so  long  as  anything  was  pre- 
ferred to  the  divine  glory,  one  had  not  fully  sub- 
mitted to  the  will  of  God ;  was  keeping  back  a 
part  of  the  price  therefore,  like  Ananias ;  or,  like 
Achan,  had  a  wedge  of  gold  and  a  Babylonish 
garment  concealed  in  one's  tent.  Thorough  work, 
then,  could  be  made  only  by  insisting  upon  will- 
ingness to  be  damned  for  the  divine  glory.  This 
was  the  only  sure  test  of  selfishness.  The  purely 


260  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

fictitious  and  inhuman  character  of  this  demand 
is  apparent.  The  only  good  thing  that  ever  came 
out  of  it  is  the  reported  reply  of  an  applicant  to 
the  examining  committee  which  pressed  the  ques- 
tion, that  he  was  willing  the  committee  should 
be  damned  if  need  be. 

We  have  escaped  such  excesses ;  but  a  great 
deal  of  unwisdom  is  still  current  on  this  point. 
Vague  general  remarks  abound  about  taking  up 
the  cross,  the  surrender  of  this  and  that,  the  will- 
ingness to  do  a  variety  of  disagreeable  things ; 
and  these  are  often  made  the  test  of  discipleship. 
Religious  exhortation  is  full  of  matter  of  this 
sort;  and  inquirers  are  left  to  torment  themselves 
with  the  fancy  that  anything  which  revolts  their 
taste  or  sensibility,  or  some  purely  imaginary 
thing,  as  a  willingness  to  go  as  a  missionary  to 
Van  Diemen's  Land,  or  to  address  some  stranger 
on  the  street  concerning  his  soul,  is  a  part  of  the 
cross  which  must  be  taken  up,  if  one  would  enter 
into  life.  They  are  also  led  to  think  that  an 
unwillingness  to  speak  in  public  when  they  have 
nothing  to  say  is  to  be  ashamed  of  Jesus,  or  to 
do  despite  to  the  spirit  of  grace.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  an  unbecoming  and  unedifying  vol- 
ubility is  often  encouraged  from  the  idea  that 
thus  the  power  of  grace  is  triumphantly  dis- 
played. The  following  quotation  from  a  religious 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  261 

paper  of  recent  publication  illustrates  the  former 
error :  — 

Then  the  Lord  God  said  to  me :  "  David,  are  you 
willing  to  consecrate  yourself  ?  "  "  Yes,  Lord.  Every- 
thing, everything."  And  he  brought  one  thing  after 
another  in  this  way  :  "  Are  you  willing  to  leave  your 
situation  if  I  ask  you  ?  "  I  was  quite  willing.  "  Would 
you  go  to  Africa  to  be  eaten  by  cannibals  ? "  I  was 
willing  to  do  even  that.  Then  the  Lord  said  :  "  Would 
you  leave  your  wife  at  home  and  go  anywhere?  "  Oh, 
I  was  n't  willing !  It  was  very  hard  to  leave  my  dear 
wife  behind  and  go  anywhere.  Then  a  fight  went  on  in 
my  heart.  I  did  n't  want  to  yield  that ;  but  the  Lord 
brought  Christ  very  prominently  before  me,  and  he 
said  that  he  must  be  first  and  my  wife  in  the  second 
place.  Then  he  brought  before  me  the  responsibility 
of  heathen  souls,  Mohammedans,  Buddhists,  and  others. 
"  David,  are  you  willing  to  leave  all  to  win  souls?" 
Then  it  came  to  me  :  "  What  am  I  to  do  ?  The  Lord 
will  take  care  of  my  wife  "  ;  and  I  said,  "  O  Lord,  I 
am  willing  to  leave  my  wife  behind  and  go  anywhere." 
Then  the  struggle  ceased.  "  Would  you  like  to  become 
as  the  dust  of  Colombo  for  my  sake  ?  "  Yes,  I  was  will- 
ing. The  Lord  searched  me  through  and  through. 

All  this  is  purely  fictitious.  The  Lord  said 
none  of  these  things ;  they  were  sug-gested  solely 
by  the  author's  own  misguided  mind.  The  Lord 
often  calls  us  to  sacrifice  and  renunciation,  but 
never  in  any  such  artificial  fashion  as  this.  The 
person  simply  had  in  his  mind  the  abstract  notion 


262  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  complete  surrender  to  God,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  determine  the  concrete  contents  of 
the  duty  by  calling  up  a  miscellaneous  collection 
of  things  to  which  he  mischt  be  disinclined.  Mean- 
while  reason  and  good  sense  were  in  complete 
abeyance,  because  of  the  fancy  that  all  of  these 
things  were  directly  suggested  by  God  as  tests  of 
the  person's  sincerity.  The  reference  to  leaving 
his  wife  is  paralleled  only  by  the  testimony  of  a 
brother  in  class-meeting  who  reported  that  his  wife 
had  died,  and  that  he  had  been  so  wonderfully 
supported  by  divine  grace  that  he  had  not  missed 
her  at  all  or  felt  any  sorrow.  The  leader  had  the 
grace  and  good  sense  to  tell  him  never  to  repeat 
that  story  again,  as  it  revealed  inhuman  insensi- 
bility rather  than  divine  support. 

But  with  the  uninstructed  and  sensitive  con- 
science, misconceptions  of  this  sort  are  likely  to 
arise  when  one  is  testing  his  willingness  to  do  the 
will  of  God.  And  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
many  good  Christians  have  been  unwilling  to 
have  their  children  exposed  to  such  crude  and 
un discriminating  teaching.  Of  course  the  intel- 
lectually and  morally  pachydermatous  are  un- 
harmed, but  with  the  sensitive  and  uninstructed 
conscience  the  danger  is  great.  And  the  danger 
is  double.  On  the  one  hand  there  is  danger  of 
falling  into  fictitious  sacrifices  and  mortifications; 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  263 

and  on  the  other  there  is  danger  of  a  perma- 
nent revolt  against  religion  when  at  last  the 
fiction  is  seen  through.  I  have  had  ample  experi- 
ence of  both  results. 

There  is  great  need  at  this  point  for  the  wise 
Christian  teacher,  in  order  to  save  the  untaught 
or  inexperienced  from  these  dangers.  He  must 
distinguish  between  the  positive  and  negative 
aspects  of  this  surrender  to  the  divine  will.  Its 
negative  meaning,  we  have  said,  is  clear;  it 
involves  the  utter  and  final  abandonment  or 
avoidance  of  all  unrighteousness  and  iniquity.  On 
the  positive  side  we  must  emphasize  the  central 
and  primal  duties  about  which  there  is  no  ques- 
tion. We  must  teach  the  inquirer  to  relate  his 
life,  internal  and  external,  to  the  divine  will,  and 
especially  to  comprehend  the  daily  round  of 
routine  life  and  of  social  relations,  the  round  of 
work  and  rest,  of  neighborly  intercourse  and 
civic  duties,  within  the  divine  thought  and  pur- 
pose, and  thus  within  the  scope  of  religion.  But 
we  must  resolutely  defend  the  inquirer  from  all 
this  unwholesome  casuistry  concerning  cross-bear- 
ing, and  testifying,  and  fictitious  self-crucifixions, 
and  imaginary  duties,  and  trumped-up  sacrifices. 
Ignorant  conscientiousness  can  settle  none  of 
these  questions.  We  must  fall  back  on  good 
sense,  that  general  sense  of  reality  and  soundness 


264  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

without  which  the  moral  life  becomes  a  series  of 
snares  and  loses  itself  in  silliness  or  fanaticism. 
We  must  point  out  that  the  essence  of  religion 
lies  in  the  fihal  spirit,  in  the  desire  to  serve  and 
please  God;  and  then  we  must  point  out  that 
our  all-inclusive  religious  duty  is  to  offer  up  the 
daily  life,  pervaded  and  sanctified  by  the  filial 
spirit,  as  our  spiritual  service  and  worship  of  God. 

But  how  shall  we  know  when  we  have  done 
enough  ?  This  is  a  question  which  roots  partly  in 
the  unwholesome  casuistry  referred  to,  and  partly 
in  a  desire  to  get  off  as  cheaply  as  possible.  In 
the  latter  case  it  shows  that  we  have  neither  part 
nor  lot  in  the  matter.  We  are  trying  to  conceive 
a  spiritual  relation  mechanically,  and  we  miss  the 
spiritual  element  altogether.  By  consequence  we 
assume  that  salvation  may  be  something  external, 
and  we  desire  to  get  it  at  the  best  bargain.  Such 
notions  arise  from  our  non-ethical  conceptions  of 
the  subject,  and  disappear  forever  when  we  see 
that  salvation  must  consist  in  establishing  or  re- 
storing the  filial  spirit  in  the  heart. 

The  question,  as  rooted  in  casuistry,  overlooks 
the  essential  truth  of  the  gospel.  The  question 
for  the  Christian  to  raise  is,  not  whether  he  has 
done  enough,  but  whether  he  is  seeking  to  live 
in  the  filial  spirit.  The  latter  question  no  one  can 
answer  for  him,  and  he  needs  no  one  to  answer 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  265 

it  for  him.  As  to  doing  enough,  no  one  does 
enough.  There  is  no  satisfaction  in  doing.  We 
are  at  best  unprofitable  servants.  We  can  always 
wonder  whether  we  might  not  have  done  more, 
strained  a  little  harder,  reached  a  greater  inten- 
sity of  effort.  That  way  madness  lies.  On  such 
a  view  one's  salvation  is  a  sort  of  Rupert's  drop, 
and  is  likely  to  fly  into  flinders  at  any  moment. 

To  all  such  questions  we  reply  by  falling  back 
on  the  gospel  itself.  We  are  not  members  of  the 
divine  family  because  we  are  profitable  servants, 
but  because  God  has  declared  us  to  be  his  chil- 
dren. We  stand  not  in  the  value  of  our  services, 
but  in  the  divine  love.  And  that  love  bears  with 
our  imperfect,  halting  service,  and  takes  the  will 
for  the  deed.  This  is  the  gist  and  glory  of  the 
gospel.  It  cannot  be  understood  in  forensic  and 
mechanical  terms,  but  it  is  perfectly  intelligible 
through  the  life  of  the  family  or  the  gratitude  of 
a  penitent  heart.  No  child  has  its  jDlace  in  the 
family  because  of  the  value  and  merit  of  its  ser- 
vices, but  because  it  is  a  child.  It  is  saved  by  grace, 
not  by  works.  But  being  a  child,  it  can  show 
forth  the  filial  spirit  in  word  and  deed,  and  paren- 
tal love  does  all  the  rest.  Membership  in  the  divine 
family  is  similarly  conditioned. 

We  must,  then,  declare  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
to  all  those  who  do  truly  and  earnestly  repent  of 


266  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

their  sins  and  intend  to  lead  a  new  life,  following 
the  commandments  of  God,  and  walking  from 
henceforth  in  his  holy  ways.  And  this  we  do  in 
the  name  and  on  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
who  has  revealed  the  Father.  And  we  must  allow 
nothing  to  interfere  with  the  simplicity  of  this 
revelation.  Mechanical  conditions  of  mechanical 
works,  and  subjective  conditions  framed  from 
emotional  states,  are  alike  and  equally  departures 
from  the  truth  of  the  gospel. 

The  religious  life  in  its  idea  is  altogether  in- 
dependent of  the  existence  of  sin.  We  are  not, 
then,  to  think  of  it  as  a  device  for  overcoming 
sin  or  for  saving  sinners.  This  work,  indeed,  has 
to  be  done ;  but  it  is  only  incidental  to  the  deeper, 
more  inclusive  aim  of  religion.  Religion  has  to 
do  with  the  relation  of  man  to  God,  and  would 
exist  if  there  were  no  sin  in  the  world  or  in  the 
heart.  Indeed,  it  is  only  in  the  sinless  life  that 
the  ideal  of  religion  can  be  perfectly  realized  ; 
for  only  there  can  we  find  the  filial  spirit  per- 
fectly realized  and  perfectly  expressed. 

In  what  we  have  now  to  say,  some  readers  of 
theological  tendencies  will  miss  a  good  deal  of 
traditional  matter  concerning  the  relation  of  the 
sinner  to  God's  law,  etc. ;  but  we  have  once  more 
to  remind  them  that  this,  in  its  best  estate,  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  267 

matter  of  theology  and  not  of  experience.  What- 
ever mysteries  there  may  be  in  that  direction,  we 
have  no  practical  concern  vs^ith  them.  We  have 
only  to  accept  our  place  as  children  in  our 
Father's  house ;  and  we  must  not  confuse  this 
simple  truth  of  the  gospel  with  matter  drawn 
from  theology. 

If  human  development  were  normal,  there 
would  be  no  need  of  conversion,  that  is,  of  a 
turning  around,  or  a  turning  toward  God ;  for  we 
should  never  have  turned  away  from  him.  We 
should  simply  pass  from  the  unconsciousness  and 
passivity  of  dawning  life  to  the  distinct  con- 
sciousness and  volitional  attitude  of  mature  life. 
And  this  transition  would  be  made  slowly,  and 
without  break  or  jar,  something  as  the  dawn 
comes  up.  As  in  the  family  life  no  one  can  tell, 
in  the  child's  unfolding,  when  love  and  obedi- 
ence begin,  so  in  the  normal  development  of  the 
religious  life  no  one  can  tell  when  it  begins. 
The  inner  life  has  none  of  the  sharp  divisions  of 
our  speech ;  and  consciousness  fades  away  from 
clear  apprehension  and  distinct  volition  into 
incipiencies,  and  uncertain  dawnings,  and  shad- 
owy beginnings,  where  directions  may  possibly 
be  discerned,  but  no  fixed  lines  can  be  drawn. 
In  such  normal  unfolding  there  might  be  great 
individual   differences  of  experience,   owing  to 


268  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

differences  of  temperament  and  mental  habit. 
With  the  more  reflective  the  recognition  and 
acceptance  of  the  divine  will  might  be  a  matter 
of  more  definite  date,  but  they  would  be  no  more 
real  on  that  account  than  they  would  be  in  a  life 
of  less  sharply  marked  transitions.  And  with 
such  reflective  person  such  a  date  might  well  be 
a  time  forever  to  be  remembered  unto  the  Lord; 
but  it  would  not  mark  a  conversion,  but  only  a 
conscious  affirmation  and  ratification  of  what  had 
already  been  unconsciously  done. 

In  actual  life  the  nearest  approximation  to  such 
normal  religious  development  is  found  in  the 
Christian  family.  Here,  too,  the  aim  should  be, 
not  conversion,  but  to  bring  the  children  up  in 
the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  ;  and  the 
necessity  of  conversion,  or  a  turning  from  sin  to 
God  and  righteousness,  hints  strongly  at  parental 
failure,  either  to  grasp  the  truth  of  the  gospel  or 
to  realize  it  in  the  family  life.  The  ideal  form  of 
the  Christian  life  is  that  which  never  experienced 
conversion,  and  which  cannot  date  its  beginning. 
And  if  one  says.  But  there  must  be  a  time  of 
distinct  choice  between  God  and  the  world,  etc., 
the  answer  would  be  that  at  best  this  only  fixes 
the  beginning  of  self-consciousness  in  religion 
and  not  the  beginning  of  religion  itself.  And  in- 
deed self-consciousness  can  rarely  be  thus  accu- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  269 

rately  dated ;  but  religion  in  the  properly  trained 
Christian  child  has  complex  and  untraceable  be- 
ginnings in  the  spirit  and  atmosphere  of  the  home, 
in  childhood's  prayers,  in  participation  in  religious 
rites  and  customs,  in  imitation  of  those  about  him, 
in  wise  parental  instruction  and  discipline,  and 
in  the  hidden  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  These 
things  cannot  be  dated.  The  date  of  self-con- 
sciousness in  choice  and  consecration  miofht  con- 
ceivably  be  fixed  in  the  case  of  the  Christian  child ; 
but  even  this  is  rarely  possible  and  it  is  unimpor- 
tant in  any  case.  When  does  filial  affection  begin 
in  the  growing  child,  or  patriotism  in  the  develop- 
ing youth?  The  important  thing  is  not  to  know 
when  the  day  begins,  but  to  have  the  day  actu- 
ally here. 

Divine  grace  and  help  are  always  needed  and 
by  all  alike;  but  conversion  as  an  event  in  con- 
scious experience  is  needed  only  for  those  who, 
from  evil  training  or  from  willful  transgression, 
have  turned  away  from  God.  All  such  persons 
must  convert  themselves ;  that  is,  must  turn  around 
and  turn  towards  God  and  rior-hteousness.  But  in 
all  cases  the  thing  aimed  at  is  the  same,  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  filial  spirit  as  the  ruling  prin- 
ciple of  life  and  action.  Where  the  filial  spirit  is 
consciously  present  we  have  the  children  of  the 
kingdom.  Where  it  is  consciously  absent  we  have 


270  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

the  cnildren  of  disobedience.  Where  there  is  no 
consciousness  as  yet  of  the  higher  goods  and  re- 
lations of  hfe  we  have  simply  the  sub-religious 
state  in  which  so  many  human  beings  exist,  and 
out  of  which  they  are  to  develop  through  the 
multiform  discipline  and  experience  of  life.  Mean- 
while they  are  the  objects  of  the  divine  grace,  and 
are  comprised  in  an  order  divinely  appointed  for 
their  development  and  unfolding  into  deeper  and 
higher  life.  Hard-and-fast  divisions  and  classifi- 
cations are  impossible  in  such  an  order;  and  fo- 
rensic distinctions  are  as  grotesquely  impossible  as 
they  would  be  in  the  life  of  the  family.  Mean- 
while it  is  the  task  of  the  Christian  teacher  and 
of  the  mature  disciple  to  cooperate  with  the  divine 
love  by  setting  forth  and  revealing  the  higher 
life  by  precept  and  example,  both  personally  and 
through  the  organized  institutions  of  the  Christian 
family  and  the  Church. 

And  in  doing  this  work  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  the  religious  life,  except  in  its  cen- 
tral factor  of  the  filial  and  obedient  spirit,  is  no 
simple  and  single  thing  which  is  present  always 
and  all  at  once  and  to  all  alike.  On  the  contrary, 
the  contents  of  religious  experience  vary  with  the 
disciple's  age,  temperament,  mental  type,  and  na- 
ture of  his  previous  life.  The  Christian  life  is  one 
in  principle,  but  in  form  and  contents  it  is  as 
varied  as  humanity  itself. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  271 

This  truth  has  not  been  duly  regarded  by  the 
churches  which  emphasize  conversion  and  per- 
sonal experience.  The  tendency  has  been  to  con- 
struct a  pattern  to  which  all  should  conform  ;  and 
this  pattern  has  largely  been  built  out  of  subjec- 
tive emotional  states  and  various  marks  of  grace 
which  only,  it  was  thought,  clearly  distinguish 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  from  spurious  imitations. 
This  was  generally  harmless  when  we  were  deal- 
ing with  hardened  sinners,  but  it  became  mischiev- 
ous when  applied  to  the  religion  of  childhood 
and  to  the  religious  life  that  should  develop  under 
the  influence  of  a  Christian  home  and  in  a  Chris- 
tian community.  Owing  to  the  confusion  of  the- 
ology with  experience,  or  to  the  undue  estimate 
of  emotional  factors,  the  popular  ideal  of  the 
religious  life  in  our  individualistic  churches  has 
little  application  to  the  larger  part  of  the  com- 
munity. 

In  order  to  escape  the  confusion  and  inadequacy 
of  traditional  thought  on  this  general  subject,  we 
must  observe  that  the  religious  life  is  manifold  in 
content  and  manifestation  accordingf  to  the  asfe, 
the  mental  type,  and  one's  experience  of  life. 

Apart  from  the  variations  dependent  upon  age, 
temperament,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  the  individ- 
ual lot,  there  are  distinct  types  of  rehgious  thought 


272  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  feeling,  all  of  which  are  equally  founded  in 
human  nature,  and  no  one  of  which  may  set  itself 
up  as  the  norm  or  ideal  by  which  the  others  may 
be  tested. 

The  first  type  is  the  ethical.  Religion  consists 
in  righteousness;  but  it  is  more  than  abstract 
ethics,  because  the  moral  law,  from  being  an  im- 
personal principle,  is  elevated  into  the  expression 
of  a  supreme  and  holy  will.  The  regard  for  im- 
personal abstractions  is  replaced  by  enthusiasm 
for  the  kingdom  of  God.  Christianity  summons 
us  to  be  members  of  this  kingdom  and  co-workers 
with  God  in  its  establishment.  Under  the  lead  of 
the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  and  relying  on  his 
word  and  promises,  we  become  conscious  subjects 
of  the  kingdom.  In  quiet  times,  and  with  per- 
sons of  wholesome  training  and  habits,  or  with 
persons  of  unemotional  type,  and  especially  with 
children,  this  is  the  prevailing  type  of  Christian  ex- 
perience. It  is  not  markedly  emotional.  It  is  not 
given  to  fervors,  whether  of  joy  or  remorse.  It  has 
no  deep  distress  over  the  depravity  of  our  nature, 
and  no  flaming  raptures  over  our  deliverance. 
But  it  is  founded  in  conscience ;  and  a  very  large 
part  of  the  work  of  the  Church  is  done  by  the 
Christians  of  this  type.  This  is  the  Christianity 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  and  of  the  epistles  of 
James  and  Peter. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  273 

But  this  is  not  the  only  type.  It  is  fundamen- 
tal, indeed,  and  any  type  which  does  not  include 
it  is  false.  But  it  does  not  include  the  whole  of 
Christian  experience.  There  are  souls  which  can 
be  satisfied  with  their  obedience  to  God's  law. 
They  hear  the  commandment,  and  they  obey; 
and  the  joy  of  a  good  conscience  is  theirs.  But 
there  are  other  souls  which  can  never  find  peace 
in  this  way.  For  them  the  commandment  is  ex- 
ceedingly broad.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  detached 
duties,  but  takes  account  of  the  heart.  They 
hold  their  lives  up  against  the  keen,  still  splendor 
of  the  divine  perfection,  and  they  are  over- 
whelmed by  the  revelation.  For  such  persons 
there  is  no  peace  in  doing.  The  more  they  do 
the  worse  they  feel.  For  the  ideal  grows  with 
obedience  and  thus  condemns  them  more  and 
more.  For  this  state  of  mind  there  is  only  one 
prescription.  They  must  be  taken  out  of  them- 
selves and  away  from  the  contemplation  of  their 
own  efforts,  and  must  be  taught  that  we  are 
saved  by  grace,  not  works.  Then  their  distress  is 
removed  by  the  vision  of  that  condescending 
grace  from  above  which  saves  us  through  itself. 
This  is  the  Pauline  type  of  Christian  experience. 
It  is  not  more  truly  Christian  than  the  purely 
ethical  type,  but  it  is  different.  It  is  more  in- 
tense, and  touches  the  moral  life  at  deeper  depths. 


274  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

With  persons  of  a  mechanical  type  it  may  pass 
over  into  Antinomianism,  and  thus,  in  revolting 
from  bondage  to  rules,  become  the  extreme  of 
immorality.  But  when  rightly  understood,  when 
interpreted  vitally  and  ethically,  it  includes  the 
obedience  of  the  ethical  type,  but  transcends  it 
by  a  higher  moral  ideal  and  insight. 

Another  type  of  Christian  experience  arises 
from  the  desire  for  direct  personal  communion 
with  God.  If  God  indeed  dwell  within  us,  there 
must  be  some  other  way  of  reaching  him  than 
by  hearsay,  whether  of  the  Bible,  or  of  theology, 
or  of  the  Church.  And  if  we  are  his  children, 
there  must  be  some  way  of  direct  communion 
with  our  Father.  Besides,  the  life  of  work  is 
only  part  of  experience.  There  is  also  the  life  of 
contemplation,  of  secret  aspiration,  of  adoration 
and  worship.  And  this  certainly  cannot  all  be  on 
one  side,  as  if  we  prayed  into  the  empty  air  with 
no  answer  but  the  echo  of  our  own  voices.  Here 
the  mystical  element  of  religion  reveals  itself. 
And  this,  too,  is  a  real  aspect  of  the  religious 
life ;  not  equally  recognized  by  all,  and  scarcely 
realized  at  all  by  many,  but  important  neverthe- 
less. It  is  represented  by  the  writings  of  St. 
John  in  the  New  Testament,  by  the  various 
bodies  of  mystics  in  church  history,  and  by  mul- 
titudes of  individual  saints.  As  said,  it  belongs 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  275 

to  the  contemplative  rather  than  the  active  side 
of  religion;  but  it  is  important,  even  for  practice, 
by  furnishing  the  living  water,  without  which 
life  loses  its  deepest  spring. 

The  perfect  Christian  life  would  involve  all  of 
these  forms  of  experience ;  but  in  our  one-sided 
life,  one  form  or  another  predominates,  and  then 
we  have  to  be  on  our  guard  against  the  short- 
coming's of  that  form.  For  each  form  has  ten- 
dencies  to  error,  which  will  surely  develop  unless 
proper  precaution  be  taken.  The  ethical  form  by 
itself  may  easily  issue  in  Pharisaism  and  spiritual 
pride.  When  the  spiritual  nature  is  not  deep, 
duty  is  exhausted  in  commandments  ;  and  if  any- 
thing more  be  suspected,  it  is  simply  another 
commandment.  The  young  man  who  had  kept 
the  law  from  his  youth  up,  or  the  Pharisee  who 
recited  his  good  deeds  in  his  prayers,  furnishes 
a  fair  specimen  of  the  tendency  and  the  danger. 
And  this  can  be  averted  only  by  enlarging  the 
moral  insight,  and  replacing  a  code  of  isolated 
good  works  by  the  law  of  perfect  purity  and  per- 
fect love.  This  only  can  cause  the  self-satisfied 
Pharisee  to  exchange  his  vainglorious  prayers  for 
the  cry  of  the  publican,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner ! "  The  ethical  type,  also,  from  its  pre- 
eminent attention  to  conduct  and  action,  tends  to 
become  dry  and  thin,  and  to  lose  itself  in  ineffee- 


276  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

tual  bustle,  while  the  spiritual  life  withers.  This, 
too,  can  be  avoided  only  by  the  deepening  and 
enriching  influences  of  prayer  and  meditation, 
and  of  spiritual  communion  with  the  Father  of 
our  spirits.  Thus  the  ethical  type  of  religious 
life  always  needs  to  be  combined  with  the  other 
types,  in  order  to  save  it  from  its  own  short- 
comings. 

But  they  equally  need  to  be  combined  with 
the  ethical  type  to  save  them  from  their  own 
shortcomings.  When  one  has  sought  in  vain  for 
peace  through  mechanical  good  works  or  strenu- 
ous conscientiousness,  there  is  no  more  glorious 
truth  than  this,  that  we  are  saved  by  grace 
through  faith  ;  but  this  becomes  a  pernicious  and 
immoral  doctrine  unless  it  be  ethically  appre- 
hended and  applied.  How  often  this  danger  has 
been  realized  is  familiar  to  every  student  of 
church  history.  The  contemplative  life  also  easily 
loses  itself  in  quietistic  indifference  to  the  work 
of  the  world,  or  in  a  barren  cultivation  of  emo- 
tions, in  which  all  moral  quality  and  moral 
strenuousness  disappear  altogether.  Now,  while 
the  ethical  view  needs  to  be  deepened  by  the 
others,  they,  in  turn,  need  the  ethical  view  to 
give  them  fibre  and  substance,  and  to  furnish  the 
active  nature  of  man  a  worthy  task.  And  this 
can  be  found  only  in  recalling  the  mind  from 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  277 

painful  inspection  of  its  own  states,  and  from 
quietistic  dreaming  and  contemplation,  and  set- 
ting it  upon  the  positive  task  of  realizing  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  The  ethical  view 
is  fundamental  and  central ;  and  however  far  we 
may  go  in  religious  fervor  and  aspiration,  we 
must  never  lose  sight  of  the  ethical  aim.  All 
truly  religious  growth  and  insight  must  be  based 
on  this.  And  one  of  the  promising  features  of 
the  present  religious  outlook  is  the  tendency  to 
pay  less  attention  to  subjective  states  and  more 
to  the  objective  aim  of  building  up  the  kingdom 
of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of  righteousness 
and  good-will. 

Even  at  the  expense  of  some  repetition  it  is 
desirable  further  to  insist  on  righteousness  and 
obedience  as  the  central  thing  in  religion.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  non-Christian  religions  have 
largely  ignored  righteousness  as  a  religious  fac- 
tor ;  and  even  in  the  Christian  Church  it  has 
been  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  something  else 
made  fundamental.  Apart  from  the  coarser  errors 
of  this  kind,  which  need  no  condemnation,  there 
are  others  of  a  more  refined  sort,  which  also  arise 
from  the  failure  to  make  righteousness  the  cen- 
tral thing.  There  are  feelings  which  gather  around 
the  aesthetic  and  contemplative  side  of  religion, 
and  which  are  easily  mistaken  for  religion.  For 


278  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

any  fairly  developed  mind  of  normal  character, 
religion  must  be  a  profoundly  interesting  subject 
of  reflection.  It  takes  hold  on  the  unseen  and 
the  eternal.  It  holds  a  philosophy  of  existence  — 
the  key  to  the  puzzles  of  life,  the  solution  of  its 
problems,  the  harmony  of  its  discords,  the  mean- 
ing of  all  finite  being.  We  are  thrown  back  upon 
it  when  we  contemplate  the  tragedy  of  human 
life.  Art  and  poetry  cry  out  for  it.  Our  sense 
of  dependence  and  incompleteness  forces  us  upon 
it.  Nameless  longings  and  voiceless  aspirations 
find  in  religion  their  expression.  Under  these  and 
similar  influences  the  human  mind  has  developed 
its  great  religious  forms. 

The  spirit  of  reverence  demands  that  all  things 
shall  be  fittingly  done,  and  naturally  seeks  to 
body  forth  the  feelings  of  awe  and  aspiration 
and  worship  in  rite  and  ceremony  and  music  and 
symbol  and  architecture,  which  thus  become  the 
visible  speech  of  the  otherwise  dumb  souls  of 
men.  In  this  way  were  produced  the  great  church 
buildings,  the  religious  music,  the  splendid  rituals 
and  liturgies,  and  the  whole  system  of  religious 
symbolism.  Much  of  this  is  needed  for  the  full 
expression  of  man's  religious  nature ;  and  when 
that  which  is  perfect  is  come  we  shall  have  these 
things  also  in  perfection. 

But  these  things,  though  connected  with  re- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  279 

ligion,  are  not  religion  in  God's  sight.  They  are 
simply  the  aesthetic  or  contemplative  side  or  aspect 
of  religion.  Persons  of  taste  and  culture,  or  of 
contemplative  mental  type,  are  easily  affected  by 
this  aspect,  and  easily  mistake  their  delight  in  it 
for  religion.  But  the  feelings  which  arise  from 
a  well-ordered  religious  service,  or  from  soaring 
architecture,  or  from  the  harmonious  blending  of 
dim  religious  lights,  or 

Where  through  the  long-drawn  aisle  and  fretted  vault 
The  pealing  anthem  swells  the  note  of  praise  — 

such  feelings  may  be  only  aesthetic  emotions 
with  no  trace  of  heart  love  and  devotion.  Like- 
wise the  sad  delight,  the  pensive  tenderness,  the 
speechless  longings  developed  in  passive  contem- 
plation of  life  and  its  vicissitudes  and  mysteries, 
may  have  nothing  of  religion  in  them.  They 
may  even  be  incompatible  with  special  inhu- 
manity, just  as  grief  over  the  woes  of  a  character 
of  fiction  is  no  security  for  tenderness  of  heart. 
When  these  things  are  cut  loose  from  righteous- 
ness, or  are  viewed  as  ends  in  themselves,  they 
become  an  abomination  to  the  Lord  and  to  every 
enlightened  conscience.  It  is  easy  for  any  one  in 
contemplative  moments,  or  in  a  religious  crowd, 
or  in  the  presence  of  religious  ideas  which  make 
no  present  demands  upon  the  will,  to  have  pleas- 


280  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ing  and  lofty  religious  emotions,  and  to  fancy 
one's  self  religious  on  that  account.  The  prac- 
tical enmity  is  asleep,  and  the  evil  and  forbidden 
courses  are  forgotten.  The  music,  the  aesthetic 
impressiveness  of  the  service,  the  contagion  of 
social  excitement,  and  even  the  grandeur  of  the 
divine  character,  combine  to  impress  us  and  to 
hide  from  us  the  set  rebellion  of  the  will.  No- 
thing but  life  will  reveal  this.  Balaam  had  fine 
religious  feeling  and  insight,  and  was  something 
of  a  poet  withal,  but,  along  with  it  all  and  ruin- 
ing it  all,  he  loved  the  wages  of  unrighteousness. 
And  he  has  many  descendants  in  both  pew  and 
pulpit. 

And  often  we  find  persons  who,  as  a  matter 
of  temperament  and  constitution,  have  a  devo- 
tional, meditative,  contemplative  religious  gift. 
They  abound  in  the  East.  The  Catholic  Church 
furnishes  more  examples  than  the  Protestant 
churches,  but  specimens  are  everywhere  to  be 
found.  They  have  a  natural  talent  for  religion. 
This,  too,  is  to  be  desired  as  a  preparation  for 
religion.  It  secures  a  religious  naturalness  and 
ease  and  propriety  which  can  hardly  be  other- 
wise obtained.  But  this  is  not  religion  at  all 
until  it  is  brought  into  connection  with  right- 
eousness and  the  fundamental  aim  to  do  the 
will  of  God.  So  far  as  it  falls  short  of  this  it  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  281 

purely  a  matter  of  temperament,  and  may  be  ut- 
terly selfish  and  irreligious.  Indeed,  some  of  the 
Church's  subtlest  temptations  and  worst  aber- 
rations from  the  spirit  of  the  Master  come  from 
eesthetic  feeling  and  good  taste.  Unless  we  are 
on  our  guard  and  are  filled  with  our  Lord's  love 
for  men,  it  is  easy  to  be  so  scandalized  with  the 
bad  grammar,  and  stumbling  speech,  and  dis- 
cordant singing,  and  generally  bad  social  form 
and  lack  of  style,  as  to  feel  in  our  hearts  that 
perhaps  it  would  be  better  if  the  masses  kept  by 
themselves  in  religion  as  in  other  things.  And 
then  the  spiritual  ear  can  hear  the  Master  saying, 
"  The  publicans  and  the  harlots  go  into  the  king- 
dom of  God  before  you." 

These  facts  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  the 
Christian  teacher ;  and  he  must  carefully  refrain 
from  applying  any  other  test  of  religion  than 
the  filial  spirit,  or  the  desire  and  purpose  to  serve 
and  please  God  by  keeping  his  commandments. 
The  grace  of  God  does  all  the  rest.  And  on  this 
most  holy  faith  of  the  gospel  we  are  to  build 
ourselves  up  into  all  obedience  and  spiritual 
growth  through  the  assisting  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  In  this  way  the  Christian  life  will  unfold 
naturally  and  in  accordance  with  the  experience 
and  peculiar  type  of  the  individual.  Nothing  be- 
ing demanded  but  the   filial  spirit,  that   spirit 


282  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

can  manifest  itself  in  various  ways  and  be  the 
same  spirit  in  them  all.  By  fixing  our  thought 
on  the  filial  spirit,  we  shall  run  little  risk  of  con- 
fusing ourselves  with  theological  and  metaphy- 
sical subtleties  on  the  one  hand,  or  with  artificial 
and  impossible  experiences  on  the  other.  Chris- 
tian truth  is  manifold  and  meets  the  needs  of  all; 
but  every  phase  of  this  truth  does  not  appeal 
equally  to  all,  nor  even  to  the  same  at  all  times. 

Christianity  has  a  religion  for  all  ages  and 
temperaments,  and  for  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men.  There  is  a  brio^ht  and  cheerful  religion 
for  childhood  and  youth,  and  a  more  sombre  and 
deeper-toned  religion  for  later  years.  It  has  matin 
bells  for  life's  morning  and  vesper  songs  for  the 
night.  Work  and  prayer,  contemplation  and 
obedience,  aspiration  and  communion,  all  mix  and 
mingle  in  the  complex  experience  of  the  Chris- 
tian community;  but  the  one  thing  common  to 
all,  the  one  thing  with  which  all  may  begin  and 
which  none  may  ever  outgrow,  is  obedient  loyalty 
to  the  spirit  and  commands  of  our  Lord.  Beyond 
this  there  is  no  common  pattern  of  religious  ex- 
perience ;  and  it  is  not  desirable  that  there  should 
be.  The  search  for  such  a  thing  implies  gross 
ignorance  in  pedagogy,  in  psychology,  and  in 
religion. 

The   life  of   man    is  very  complex,  and  our 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  283 

human  needs  are  many.  The  feeling  of  depend- 
ence and  helplessness  growing  out  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  life  and  the  inexorable  necessities  which 
wall  us  in  on  every  side,  the  feeling  of  awe  and  fear 
springing  out  of  the  impenetrable  mystery  of  our 
existence,  the  feeling  of  loneliness  and  orphanage 
also  which  sometimes  comes  over  us  in  the  deep 
silence  of  the  universe,  the  heart  wailing  over 
and  after  its  dead,  the  intellect  seeking  for  know- 
ledge, and  the  conscience  hungering  and  thirsting 
after  righteousness,  —  all  of  these  things  enter 
into  and  determine  the  religious  manifestations  of 
humanity.  The  Christian  teacher  will  always  have 
to  minister  to  more  than  the  conscience  of  men.  He 
must  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  strengthen  the 
feeble  will,  and  bring  a  message  of  life  and  cheer 
and  inspiration.  I  would  not  then  be  understood 
as  saying  that  conduct  or  righteousness  is  the 
sum  of  religion.  But  I  do  say  it  is  the  sum  of 
God's  demands  upon  us,  the  central  thing  in  our 
relations  to  him.  Given  this,  our  religious  life 
may  unfold  in  various  ways  according  to  our 
special  experience  or  peculiar  temper,  or  the  de- 
mands made  upon  us  by  our  position  in  life;  but 
without  this  all  else  is  dust  and  ashes  before 
conscience  and  before  God.  We  are  not  children 
of  the  kingdom  because  we  are  filled  with  awe 
before  the  midnight  heavens,  or  in  some  great 


284  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

cathedral,  or  at  some  magnificent  religious  ser- 
vice. We  are  not  children  of  the  kingdom  be- 
cause we  are  thrilled  or  melted  by  religious 
music,  or  delight  in  devotional  exercises,  or  are 
emotionally  moved  by  religious  contemplation. 
All  of  these  things  are  possible  without  one  spark 
of  loyalty  to  God  or  love  to  men.  We  are  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom,  if  at  all,  because  we  are  bent 
on  doing  the  will  of  God. 

The  teaching  and  practice  of  the  individual- 
istic churches  concerning  the  religion  of  child- 
hood have  generally  oscillated  between  two  ex- 
tremes of  error ;  either  children  have  been  viewed 
as  incapable  of  religion,  or  forms  of  experience 
have  been  demanded  from  them  which  are  pos- 
sible only  to  mature  life,  and  often  only  to  aban- 
doned sinners.  The  words  of  Scripture  were  origi- 
nally addressed  to  grown  men,  and  often  to  men 
who  were  just  emerging  from  heathen  darkness 
and  all  manner  of  filthy  practices ;  but  they  have 
been  supposed  to  apply  to  all,  heathen  and  Chris- 
tian, young  and  old  alike ;  and  then  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  force  on  the  young  the  expe- 
rience of  the  mature,  and  to  find  in  the  young 
the  depravity  of  abandoned  sinners.  Enormous 
pedagogical  and  psychological  error  has  been 
common  at  this  point. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  286 

All  the  churches  which  emphasize  personal  re- 
ligion have  been  more  or  less  guilty  of  this  fault ; 
and  they  need  to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  re- 
pentance. There  is  a  large  body  of  feelings,  much 
affected  by  the  artificially  spiritual,  which  are  not 
religious  at  all,  but  are  simply  expressions  of  ad- 
vancing age.  Such  are  the  sense  of  the  brevity  of 
life  and  of  the  unsatisfying  nature  of  all  earthly 
things.  Feelings  of  this  sort  are  unnatural  to 
the  young ;  and  language  of  this  sort  from  them 
can  only  be  an  echo,  or  an  expression  of  artificial 
sentiment.  There  are  many  other  feelings  of  a 
religious  nature  which  are  also  impossible  to  the 
young.  Such  are  a  deep  sense  of  sinfulness,  of 
human  weakness,  of  the  depravity  of  human  na- 
ture, of  the  imperfection  of  our  righteousness,  and 
of  the  constant  need  of  divine  grace  and  forbear- 
ance and  forgiveness.  Such  insight  is  impossible 
to  childhood,  for  it  is  born  only  of  the  deeper 
experiences  of  mature  life  and  of  the  sterner  con- 
flicts of  faith.  Yet  we  have  not  scrupled  to 
gather  up  these  feelings  and  convictions  as  pre- 
eminently marks  of  grace,  and  to  look  for  them 
in  the  life  of  childhood.  And  sometimes  the 
child  repeats  the  phrases,  to  our  great  delight 
and  edification.  Or  we  see  that  the  meaning  is 
really  beyond  the  child,  and  then  we  conclude 
that  children  are  incapable  of  religion. 


286  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

Both  o£  these  errors  are  to  be  avoided.  The 
religion  of  maturity  is  impossible  to  childhood, 
but  the  religion  of  childhood  is  religion  neverthe- 
less. It  is  largely  of  the  simple  ethical  type,  not 
vsrithout  its  naive  misconceptions  and  innocent 
misunderstandings ;  but  it  may  be  very  loyal  for 
all  that.  A  child's  conscience  may  be  very  tender, 
and  may  even  see  more  straight  on  matters  level 
to  the  child's  mind  than  the  more  sophisticated 
conscience  of  the  mature. 

Again,  we  often  misjudge  the  religion  of  child- 
hood by  misinterpreting  the  transparency  of 
childhood.  The  child  has  not  learned  self-control, 
reserve,  dissimulation  ;  and  whatever  is  in,  comes 
out.  The  child  finds  the  Sabbath  irksome,  and 
says  so.  The  man  finds  it  irksome,  and  says  no- 
thing about  it.  The  child  finds  the  religious  exer- 
cise distasteful,  and  would  like  to  run  out  into 
the  back  yard  and  play.  The  man  finds  it  distaste- 
ful, and  retires  into  the  back  yard  of  worldly 
thoughts,  which  are  quite  as  far  from  spirituality 
as  the  child's  games,  but  which  do  not  make  such 
a  show  in  the  outward  appearance.  But  to  him 
who  looketh  at  the  heart  the  well-behaved  and 
decorous  worshiper  is  often  farther  from  him  than 
the  restless  and  fretful  child.  Let  any  one  who 
is  inclined  to  judge  the  religion  of  childhood  in 
this  way  ask  himself  how  he  would  seem,  if  he 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  287 

should  act  out  without  disguise  the  passing  feel- 
ings, the  lawless  fancies,  the  random  disinclina- 
tions, the  transient  indifference  to  the  best  things, 
from  which  none  of  us  are  free.  We  can  hardly 
expect  the  children  to  attain  to  a  perfection  of 
constancy  and  consistency  which  is  beyond  the 
mature;  and  we  should  not  apply  a  rule  to  them 
which  we  could  not  endure  ourselves. 

The  insight  that  a  child  must  be  a  child  in  re- 
ligion as  well  as  in  other  things,  and  the  further 
insight  that  every  normal  stage  of  life  is  legiti- 
mate in  the  divine  plan,  should  help  us  to  look 
with  a  kindlier  eye  on  the  child  life  and  prevent 
any  interference  with  its  normal  manifestations 
in  the  supposed  interests  of  piety.  The  child  life 
moves  within  a  small  circle  of  activities,  desires, 
and  aversions,  mostly  directed  toward  physical 
objects,  and  thus  to  many  it  seems  not  deep  enough 
and  spiritual  enough  for  religion.  One  speaker  at 
a  recent  gathering  of  ministers  said  he  did  not 
wish  his  children  to  profess  religion  until  they 
had  outgrown  the  inconstancy  and  frivolity  of 
childhood.  A  minister  of  my  acquaintance  was 
received  into  the  Church  when  a  child,  and  next 
day  was  seen  playing  ball  with  some  other  chil- 
dren. This  was  a  sore  offense  to  a  good  brother, 
who  saw  in  the  fact  a  proof  that  children  are  in- 
capable of  true  heart  religion.  How  could  a  boy 


288  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

play  ball  with  any  zest  if  he  had  any  religion  ? 
Yet  the  probability  is  that  the  boy,  in  playing 
ball,  was  doing  the  very  best  thing  for  himself, 
religion,  and  all.  Another  ministerial  acquaint- 
ance secured  a  ticket  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  gymna- 
sium for  a  lad  who  was  spending  much  time  on 
the  streets  and  was  in  danger  from  idleness ;  but 
his  father  forbade  him  to  accept  it,  as  he  heard 
they  played  checkers  and  bowls  there,  and  he 
"would  as  soon  think  of  sending  his  son  to  a  sa- 
loon to  learn  Christianity."  When  the  minister 
said  that  he  played  himself  sometimes,  the  poor, 
ignorant  Pharisee  replied  that  he  could  only  think 
of  Christ's  words :  "Ye  compass  sea  and  land  to 
make  one  proselyte;  and  when  he  is  made,  ye 
make  him  twofold  more  the  child  of  hell  than 
yourselves."  This  was  supposed  to  show  exceed- 
ing spirituality. 

Christian  truth,  we  have  already  said,  is  mani- 
fold, and  meets  the  needs  of  all;  but  the  needs 
vary  with  age,  experience,  temperament,  mental 
type,  etc.,  and  the  religious  life  will  vary  to  cor- 
respond. This  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  dealing 
with  the  religion  of  the  young.  It  is  one  of  God's 
great  mercies  that  those  who  have  the  earthly 
life  before  them  are  generally  pleased  with  it. 
Hence,  to  the  young,  it  is  a  glad  thing  to  live, 
and  we  ought  not  to  wish  it  otherwise.  Without 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  289 

this  naive  optimism  of  youth,  hfe  would  hardlji 
be  possible ;  and  nothing  could  well  be  more  false 
to  Christian  truth  and  the  Christian  spirit  than 
interference  therewith  in  the  supposed  interests 
of  piety.  We  must  not,  then,  call  upon  the  young 
to  have  mournful  and  despondent  feelings  about 
the  life  that  now  is,  and  a  desire  to  depart  and 
be  with  Christ,  in  the  fancy  that  thereby  they 
become  more  truly  religious.  We  must  rather  re- 
mind them  that  this  earth  also  is  one  of  the  many 
mansions  in  the  Father's  house,  and  seek  to  help 
them  to  relate  this  life  to  God's  will.  The  child's 
optimism  is  really  nearer  the  truth  than  the  old 
man's  pessimism;  for  it  is  God's  world  after  all, 
and  it  is  right  that  we  should  rejoice  in  it  and  be 
glad;  and  instead  of  rebuking  the  children  for 
their  simple  joy  in  life,  we  should  rather  rebuke 
the  pessimism  of  maturity  as  rooting  in  a  lack  of 
faith. 

Let,  then,  the  children  take  their  vows  with  a 
glad  heart;  and  when  life  wears  on,  and  experi- 
ence deepens,  and  the  overturnings  come,  they 
will  learn  of  themselves  that  this  earth  is  not  our 
rest,  and  will  appreciate  the  life  and  immortality 
brought  to  light  in  the  gospel.  They  will  also 
learn  the  blessedness  of  the  corresponding  fact 
that  we  are  saved  by  grace.  Any  true  apprecia- 
tion of  these  things  comes  only  through  life. 


290  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

The  formulas  may  be  learned  from  a  catechism, 
hut  their  meaning  comes  from  experience;  and, 
coming  in  this  way,  it  is  unforced  and  natural. 
It  is  not  a  sign  of  grace,  which  is  anxiously  to 
be  sought  for  in  all  Christians,  but  an  insight 
which  is  developed  only  in  the  maturer  Christian 
life.  And  the  lacking  insight,  or  the  lesser  mea- 
sure of  insight,  points  only  to  a  less  advanced 
religious  development,  and  not  to  being  an  alien 
or  stranofer  in  the  household  of  faith. 

The  churches  have  no  more  important  duty 
a,t  present  than  to  make  wise  provision  for  the 
relisrious  training;  of  childhood.  Statistics  show 
that  the  great  majority  of  church  members  come 
from  the  Sunday  school.  One  of  our  leading  in- 
dividualist churches  reports  that  ninety  per  cent 
of  its  additions  come  from  this  source.  While, 
then,  we  should  not  relax  any  wise  evangelistic 
effort  of  the  revival  type,  it  is  manifest  that 
Christian  nurture  and  training  are  to  be  the 
great  reliance  of  the  Church  in  the  future,  and 
that  we  must  aim  to  colonize  the  world  through 
the  Christian  family  and  home,  rather  than  to 
reclaim  the  world  by  the  conversion  of  mature 
sinners.  Of  course  we  must  do  what  we  can  with 
the  old  sinner,  but  this  method  alone  is  as  hope- 
less as  the  plan  to  save  society  from  drunkenness 
by   reforming    drunkards,   rather  than  by  pre- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  291 

venting  the  making  of  drunkards.  Prophylactic 
measures  are  the  reliance  of  all  modern  thought, 
both  in  medicine  and  in  morals.  There  is  a  de- 
mand here  for  more  psychological  insight  and 
better  pedagogical  methods  than  we  have  had  in 
the  past.  Throughout  the  early  years  the  Church 
and  the  family  are  responsible  for  the  religious 
life  of  the  child,  and  they  should  avail  them- 
selves of  all  the  means  of  influence  at  their 
command  to  prepare  the  way  for  and  build  up 
this  life.  An  atmosphere  of  home  piety,  the  for- 
mation and  cultivation  of  religious  habits  of 
thought  and  action,  wise  religious  instruction, 
all  reenforced  and  illustrated  by  living  example, 
would  go  so  far  to  turn  the  young  life  toward 
God  and  righteousness  that,  when  reflective  con- 
sciousness should  come,  and  the  soul  should 
decide  its  direction  for  itself,  it  would  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  ratify  what  had  already 
been  done,  and  go  on  without  break  or  jar  into 
the  fullness  of  spiritual  life. 

And  even  with  the  mature  we  need  to  criticise 
and  reform  our  methods.  The  growth  of  intelli- 
gence, the  spread  of  good  taste,  a  more  independ- 
ent and  critical  way  of  thinking,  have  made 
many  traditional  methods  distasteful  or  ineffec- 
tive. This  is  especially  the  case  with  revival 
methods,  many  of  which,  moreover,  rest  upon  an 


292  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

outgrown  theology,  and  all  of  which  need  to  be 
revised  in  the  interest  of  both  good  sense  and 
religion.  The  indications  are  that  hereafter  the 
churches  will  have  to  rely  mainly  on  religious 
training  for  children,  as  just  said,  and  "  hand- 
picking"  for  the  mature.  In  any  case,  we  must 
remember  that  there  is  nothing  sacred  in  meth- 
ods ;  that  the  present  value  of  a  method  depends 
on  its  adaptation  to  present  circumstances  j  and 
that  the  most  effective  method  is  the  best. 

And  now  we  must  have  a  final  word  with  the 
traditionalist  who  confuses  theology  with  experi- 
ence. He  will  certainly  miss,  in  the  previous 
exposition,  a  deal  to  which  he  has  been  accus- 
tomed. He  is  not  content  to  find  in  conversion 
simply  a  turning  to  God  in  trust  and  obedience 
according  to  the  commands  and  promises  of 
Christ,  but  discerns  in  it  mysterious  forensic 
relations  to  the  divine  justice,  and  also  deep 
metaphysical  changes  in  the  soul  itself.  The 
former  element  is  necessary  in  order  to  meet  the 
supposed  demands  of  justice ;  and  the  latter  ele- 
ment is  peculiarly  necessary  for  distinguishing 
the  work  of  grace  from  mere  natural  goodness. 
Such  goodness,  not  being  of  faith,  is  of  course 
of  sin ;  and  there  is  needed  some  sure  standard 
whereby   these   counterfeits   of    grace   may   be 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  293 

detected.  Such  a  standard  is  at  least  formally 
furnished  by  the  view  in  question.  Judged  by 
character  and  conduct,  it  is  not  easy  to  mark  off 
men  into  two  sharply  distinct  classes ;  but  if  we 
may  suppose  some  hidden  forensic  or  metaphysi- 
cal change  or  event,  then  the  distinction  is  easy. 
The  converted  are  those  in  whom  this  change  has 
taken  place.  All  others  are  unconverted,  and  their 
righteousness,  however  fair  in  seeming,  is  filthy 
rags.  But  as  thus  conceived,  the  operation  is  as 
mechanical  as  baptismal  regeneration  itself.  It  is 
taken  entirely  out  of  the  intelligible  ethical  realm, 
and  is  with  difficulty  saved  from  vanishing  into 
abstract  hocus-pocus. 

We  escape  this  confusion  by  again  reminding 
ourselves  that  salvation  on  the  human  side  must 
essentially  consist  in  the  production  of  the  filial 
spirit,  and  that  forensic  difficulties,  if  not  fictions 
of  abstract  theology,  are  something  with  which 
we  have  no  practical  concern.  Whatever  hidden 
difficulties  in  the  divine  nature  or  government 
there  may  be  respecting  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
our  faith  is  that  they  have  all  been  met,  so  that 
our  sole  duty  is  to  proclaim  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  to  call  the  prodigals  home  to  the  Father's 
house,  and  to  bring  up  the  children  to  be  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  All 
beyond  this  is  theology,  and  is  of  no  practical 


294  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

moment.  The  great  danger  to  which  men  are 
exposed  consists  in  unhkeness  to  God  in  sym- 
pathy and  purpose.  If  this  unlikeness  can  be 
removed,  everything  else  will  take  care  of  itself. 
Remembering  the  form  of  human  development 
and  the  universality  of  the  provisions  of  the 
gospel,  we  must  say  that  every  one  is  in  the 
divine  family  who  does  not  insist  on  taking  him- 
self out.  And  our  effort  must  be  directed  to 
bringing  men  to  recognize  their  duties,  relations, 
and  privileges  as  members  of  the  family. 

But  the  person  who  thinks  mechanically  will 
continue  to  ask.  Who,  then,  are  the  saved  ?  This 
question  is  best  answered  by  asking  another.  Who 
are  the  unsaved  ?  To  this  we  can  give  an  answer. 
The  unsaved  are  all  those  who  are  living  in  un- 
righteousness and  unfilial  rejection  of  the  law 
and  grace  of  God.  These  are  the  prodigal  sons 
who  must  return  to  their  Father  or  reap  the 
fruit  of  their  doings.  All  others  are  saved  in  this 
sense,  that  they  are  comprehended  in  an  order  of 
divine  grace  which  is  working  toward  their  de- 
velopment into  the  consciousness  and  acceptance 
of  their  place  in  God's  family.  But  the  develop- 
ment is  nowhere  complete.  It  stretches  all  the 
way  from  the  unconsciousness  of  childhood  to 
the  still  imperfect  apprehension  and  devotion  of 
the  mature  saint.  But  all  alike  stand  in  the  divine 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  295 

grace ;  and  the  divine  love  is  bearing  them  on. 
And  our  task  consists  in  co-working  with  this  love, 
that  the  will  of  God  may  be  seen  and  done  by 
us,  and  on  the  earth,  as  it  is  seen  and  done  in 
heaven.  Beyond  this  judgment  is  not  ours.  Our 
sole  hope  is  in  the  mercy  and  goodness  of  God. 

Not  long  ago  a  minister  of  considerable  stand- 
ing in  one  of  our  churches  introduced  his  sermon 
by  emphasizing  the  importance  of  knowing  the 
date  and  place  of  one's  birth ;  and  then  went  on 
to  argue  the  greater  importance  of  knowing  the 
date  and  place  of  one's  second  birth,  in  complete 
ignorance  apparently  that  the  only  really  impor- 
tant question  in  either  case  is,  Is  the  man  now 
alive  ?  In  the  development  of  religious  thought 
this  question  is  fast  displacing  all  others ;  and 
the  answer  to  it  is  found  solely  in  the  quality 
and  direction  of  the  life.  Obedience  and  the  re- 
sulting fruits  of  the  Spirit  are  the  only  test  of 
spiritual  life.  All  else  may  be  imitated,  and  is 
imitated.  The  study  of  religious  psychology  has 
shown  the  unreliability  of  all  other  tests.  We  no 
longer  take  any  man's  word  as  to  his  spiritual 
state  on  the  basis  of  remarkable  experiences.  We 
discount  them  all ;  we  distrust  them  all,  unless 
accompanied  by  the  appropriate  fruit.  We  are  no 
longer  concerned  about  experiences,  but  only  to 


296  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

live  in  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom  and  to  be  about 
our  Father's  business.  With  growing  insight  into 
the  divineness  of  the  natural,  we  are  no  longer 
anxious  about  signs  and  wonders,  but  find  God 
also  in  the  routine  of  life  faithfully  borne,  and  in 
intellect  and  conscience  as  well.  We  recognize 
the  order  of  life  as  a  divinely  appointed  discipline 
for  our  spiritual  development ;  and  we  never  ex- 
pect anything  from  God  that  will  excuse  us  from 
doing  our  best,  or  relieve  us  from  the  discipline 
of  life.  Not  a  little  of  supposedly  religious  desire 
is  a  desire  for  religious  ease  and  luxury  rather 
than  a  desire  for  greater  likeness  to  God  and 
greater  spiritual  efficiency  in  the  work  of  the 
world.  But  neither  prayer,  nor  faith,  nor  any 
other  religious  exercise  whatever  may  be  offered 
in  place  of  our  own  effort.  There  are  no  short 
cuts  to  perfection  even  in  the  spiritual  field.  The 
foundations  of  character  must  be  laid,  not  without 
our  own  effort,  in  the  humble  virtues  of  faithful- 
ness, integrity,  patience,  industry ;  and  until  these 
are  learned  the  higher  spiritual  attainments  would 
be  out  of  place  and  impossible.  Nothing  but 
religious  caricature  can  result  when  the  higher 
graces  or  the  "  comforts  "  of  religion  are  sought 
apart  from  faithfulness  in  elementary  duties.  Any 
real  communion  with  God  must  take  place  through 
the  moral  nature  and  through  spiritual  likeness  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  297 

him.  And  any  mysticism  that  is  not  to  lose  itself 
in  barren,  i£  not  immoral,  subjectivities  must  be 
resolutely  subjected  to  this  requirement.  Yet 
though  we  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight  God  is 
always  with  us.  We  must  indeed  work  out  our 
own  salvation,  or  we  should  be  pauperized  by  our 
religion  ;  still  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  us  to 
will  and  to  work  of  his  good  pleasure.  And  he 
does  not  leave  himself  without  a  witness  in  the 
soul.  We  have  indeed  to  plod  along  the  dusty 
road  of  daily  routine,  yet  not  without  a  growing 
sense  that  we  are  not  alone,  and  that  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  is  with  us  in  the  way. 


IV 

THE  MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  THE 
KINGDOM  OF  GOD 


IV 


THE  MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  THE 
KINGDOM  OF  GOD 

The  subject  as  given  implies  that  the  religious 
thought  of  to-day  has  advanced  beyond  that  o£ 
the  past  in  its  conception  of  the  kingdom.  This 
agrees  with  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  himself, 
and  also  with  the  facts  of  history.  The  kingdom 
is  a  growth,  both  in  our  understanding  of  it  and 
in  its  realization.  Our  Lord  spoke  of  it  as  a 
leaven,  which  was  gradually  to  leaven  the  lump. 
Again,  he  described  it  as  a  seed,  which  should 
grow  up,  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  after 
that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  And  he  even  spoke 
of  our  knowledge  of  it  as  something  to  be  slowly 
gained  under  the  tuition  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whom  he  would  send  to  guide  his  disciples  into 
the  truth.  He  brought  the  leaven,  he  planted  the 
seed,  he  spoke  the  word ;  but  the  evolution  and 
the  understanding  were  committed  to  the  ages. 

Probably  we  should  all  accept  this  statement 
for  the  realization  of  the  kingdom,  but  still  we 
might  think  that  the  knowledge  of  the  kingdom 
was  possessed  from  the  start  in  the  revelation  of 


302  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  Bible.  This  fancy,  however,  is  quickly  dis- 
pelled by  a  moment's  reflection.  In  some  sense 
we  have  had  Christian  truth  always  before  us  in 
the  Scriptures,  but  in  another  sense  we  are  only 
slowly  entering  into  the  meaning,  for  a  revelation 
is  not  made  until  it  is  understood.  If  we  should 
send  a  book  on  algebra  to  the  king  of  Dahomey, 
we  could  hardly  say  that  a  revelation  of  the 
higher  mathematics  had  been  made  to  the  savage 
chief ;  because  such  a  revelation  implies  not 
merely  the  possession  of  an  outward  and  visible 
sign,  but  also  an  inward  intellectual  compre- 
hension. In  the  same  way  the  revelation  of  God 
has  been  conditioned  by  the  mental  and  moral 
development  of  the  religious  community.  Any 
revelation,  even  of  the  purest  truth,  is  sure  to  be 
warped  by  those  who  receive  it  into  some  image 
of  themselves,  and  thus  their  narrowness  and 
blindness  reappear  in  their  interpretations,  and 
only  slowly  does  the  essential  truth,  through  the 
illumination  of  the  spirit,  finally  free  itself  from 
these  distorting  media  and  appear  in  its  true 
nature. 

These  considerations  prepare  us  to  understand 
the  slow  progress  of  the  kingdom.  We  have 
slowly  come  into  the  spirit  of  Christ  even  as  a 
disposition,  and  still  more  slowly  into  the  under- 
standing of  God's  purpose  for  man.  One  of  the 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   303 

early  disciples,  when  our  Lord  was  still  with  them, 
proposed  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  and  con- 
sume the  inhabitants  of  a  Samaritan  village  who 
had  not,  as  he  conceived,  properly  received  them. 
Our  Lord  rebuked  him  with  the  words,  "  Ye 
know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of."  And 
ever  since,  conceit  and  vanity  and  malignity  have 
thought  themselves  to  be  of  the  spirit  of  God  and 
have  wreaked  no  end  of  mischief  upon  the  world, 
when  all  the  time  they  knew  not  what  spirit  they 
were  of.  St.  Bernard  favored  the  Inquisition. 
Francis  de  Sales,  so  very  highly  spoken  of  as  a 
saint  and  much  admired  to  this  day  by  persons 
who  make  a  specialty  of  piety,  indulged  in  one 
of  the  most  inhuman  of  persecutions.  A  few 
hundred  years  ago  all  manner  of  persecution  was 
the  rule  in  the  Christian  Church.  In  the  time 
of  Shakespeare  six  hundred  unfortunate  women 
were  hanged  or  burned  as  witches  in  consequence 
of  one  wind-storm  in  England.  Bodin,  one  of  the 
greatest  legal  lights  of  France,  was  vehement  in 
his  denunciation  of  witchcraft,  and  Sir  Matthew 
Hale  pronounced  sentence  of  death  on  witches. 
It  is  Httle  more  than  two  hundred  years  since  the 
Salem  witchcraft  left  indelible  infamy  upon  our 
New  England  history.  These  things  were  the 
outcome  to  a  large  extent  of  ignorance,  —  igno- 
rance of  natural  science   and  ignorance  of  the 


304  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

order  of  natural  law  and  ignorance  of  the  laws 
of  disease ;  but  they  were  by  no  means  always 
free  from  a  considerable  smack  of  malignity. 

But  even  in  cases  where  such  ignorance  was  not 
in  question,  men  showed  themselves  equally  slow 
in  apprehending  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  Thus 
we  have  been  repeating  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years  that  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth; 
and  yet  it  would  not  be  hard  to  find  multitudes 
of  people,  and  even  many  denominations,  who 
regard  God  as  a  stickler  for  etiquette,  so  that 
some  external  rite  or  ceremony  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  salvation,  or  so  that  only  certain 
persons  can  perform  the  rite  or  the  ceremony. 
Again,  we  have  been  praying  for  a  long  time 
"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them 
that  trespass  against  us " ;  but  how  seldom  we 
think  of  the  tremendous  implications  of  such  a 
petition.  Or,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it,  or  did  it 
not,  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  my  brethren, 
ye  did  it,  or  did  it  not,  unto  me."  Yet  in  the 
face  of  this  the  Christian  world  has  been  full 
of  indifference  and  hardness  of  heart ;  and  the 
claims  of  humanity,  its  crying  needs,  its  sub- 
merged members,  the  unjust  and  destructive 
conditions  under  which  so  many  live  and  die, 
have  had  historically  exceedingly  little  attention ; 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   305 

and  it  is  only  recently  that  anything  that  could 
be  called  enthusiasm  for  humanity  has  appeared 
even  in  the  Church  itself.  And  all  this  in  the 
face  of  those  tremendous  words,  "  Ye  did  it  not 
to  me." 

Similarly,  with  the  Master's  doctrine  of  stew- 
ardship, how  slow  the  Christian  world  has  been 
to  receive  it,  and  how  much  slower  to  put  it  into 
practice.  This  doctrine  does  not  indeed  condemn 
the  simple  possession  of  wealth,  —  such  a  view 
would  be  fatal  to  civilization ;  but  it  condemns 
its  misuse,  its  waste  on  vanity  and  folly,  on  all 
those  things  that  contribute  nothing  to  human 
comfort  or  advancement,  instead  of  using  it  so 
that  it  shall  bless  both  its  owner  and  the  com- 
munity. On  this  point  the  Master  was  exceed- 
ingly uncompromising,  but  his  teaching  has  not 
found  wide  recognition  among  his  disciples.  And 
the  dream  which  lies  at  the  heart  of  Christianity, 
of  a  great  brotherhood  for  prayer  and  labor  and 
mutual  help,  is  all  too  much  ignored,  or  rather 
unheard  of.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  steward- 
ship has  never  come  into  the  thought  of  the  great 
majority  of  disciples. 

If  then  we  should  ask.  Is  the  Christian  Church 
Christian?  the  answer  must  certainly  be.  The 
Church  is  becoming  Christian,  but  in  any  ideal 
sense  it  is  not  Christian  yet.  As  in  the  old  dis- 


306  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

pensation  God  had  to  wink  at  many  things  be- 
cause of  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts,  so  equally 
under  the  new  dispensation  he  has  to  wink  at  a 
great  many  things  because  of  the  hardness  and 
dullness  of  men's  hearts.  The  truth  is  in  the 
Church  as  a  leaven  which  is  slowly  leavening  the 
lump.  It  is  in  the  Church  as  principles  which  are 
slowly  being  understood  and  applied.  It  is  in  the 
Church  as  a  spirit  which  is  slowly  leading  men 
out  into  the  light.  Only  in  this  sense  is  the  Church 
Christian  even  yet.  Verily  our  God  is  the  "  God 
of  all  patience." 

Now  these  things  do  not  imply  that  these  im- 
perfect saints  are  hypocrites.  They  only  serve  to 
show  how  slowly  we  come  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  truths  respecting  the  kingdom 
of  God.  They  have  been  announced  for  centuries 
from  our  pulpits,  and  have  been  repeated  in  prayer 
and  liturgy ;  but  we  have  lost  ourselves  in  the 
letter  that  killeth,  and  have  missed  the  spirit  that 
alone  profiteth  anything.  Thus  we  see  the  truth 
of  the  figure  that  the  kingdom  is  a  leaven,  a 
slowly  growing  seed,  and  that  the  truth  is  only 
slowly  apprehended  through  the  working  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  religious 
community. 

Thus  far  on  the  slow  growth  of  the  kingdom ; 
but  now  let  us  inquire  what  the  kingdom  itself 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   307 

means.  If  the  kingdom  of  God  should  come  on 
earth,  what  would  the  fact  be?  In  our  earthiness 
of  thought  and  lack  of  spiritual  insight  we  might 
easily  fancy  that  some  concrete  manifestation 
would  be  made  to  the  senses.  The  New  Jerusalem 
might  descend  out  of  heaven,  with  its  walls  of 
precious  stones,  its  pavements  of  gold,  and  its 
gates  of  pearl.  There  would  be  something  that 
we  could  see,  and  the  light  would  shine  afar  off, 
and  the  nations  would  gather  to  behold  the  sight, 
and  thus  the  kingdom  of  God  would  be  among 
men.  Probably  some  such  notion  as  this  would 
be  the  thouo-ht  of  most  men.  But  a  moment's  re- 
flection  convinces  us  that  this  would  be  only  a 
celestial  show,  with  no  more  spiritual  significance 
than  a  splendid  circus.  There  would  be  nothing 
moral  or  moralizing  in  such  a  performance.  But 
the  Lord  looketh  at  the  heart,  and  the  kingdom 
of  God  can  come  with  meaning  only  in  the  heart. 
The  true  kingdom  of  God  is  within.  It  is  a  mode 
of  living  and  thinking,  not  an  external  show. 
Hence  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  could  only 
mean  the  subordination  of  our  hearts  and  wills 
to  the  will  of  God.  It  would  not  appear  in  the 
heavens  above  nor  in  the  earth  beneath.  It  would 
not  come  with  sense  observation  at  any  time.  It 
would  appear  first  of  all  in  the  surrendered  and 
obedient  will.  Men  would  be  loving  God  with  all 


308  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

their  hearts  and  their  neighbors  as  themselves. 
This  would  be  the  essential  thing,  the  doing  of 
God's  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 

This  describes  the  essential  principle  of  the 
kingdom.  The  kingdom  comes  in  the  individual 
when  his  will  is  set  to  do  the  will  of  God.  It 
comes  in  the  community  in  proportion  as  the 
members  of  the  community  are  bent  on  doing 
the  will  of  God.  And  this  also  defines  the  sub- 
jects of  the  kingdom.  They  are  those  who  are  on 
the  side  of  righteousness  and  who  are  seeking  to 
know  and  do  the  will  of  God.  Whatever  others 
may  be,  they  are  not  in  the  present  sense  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom. 

Now  we  might  think  that  this  would  be  all, 
and  indeed  it  would  be  very  much.  If  men  were 
loving  God  with  all  their  hearts  and  their  neigh- 
bors as  themselves,  we  should  be  far  on  the  way 
toward  the  coming  of  his  kingdom.  A  great 
many  evils  would  disappear  at  once.  All  the  evils 
that  spring  from  selfishness  and  crime  and  ani- 
malism would  disappear.  Likewise,  all  those  that 
spring  from  harshness  and  bitterness  of  thought, 
from  envy  and  superciliousness  and  evil  speaking 
and  evil  thinking  would  disappear.  And  yet  this 
in  itself  would  not  be  the  full  thought  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  It  would  indeed  be  its  essential 
principle  and  vital  germ,  but  still  it  would  only 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM  309 

be  part  of  the  matter,  for  we  need  next  to  know 
what  God's  will  is.  We  must  not  only  have  a 
right  attitude  of  will  toward  God,  but  we  must 
have  some  knowledge  respecting  him  and  his 
purpose  concerning  man.  And  without  the  latter 
we  might  well  wander  in  error  and  superstition, 
which  would  prevent  the  full  manifestation  and 
realization  of  the  kingdom.  Thus  this  right  prin- 
ciple might  conceivably  exist  in  a  community  of 
Lazaruses  and  paupers,  or  people  lost  in  ignorance 
and  superstition,  and  in  that  case  no  one  would 
say  that  this  represented  God's  will  for  men  or 
that  his  kingdom  had  fully  come.  The  Coptic  or 
Abyssinian  church  may  possibly  be  as  devoted 
as  any  of  the  western  churches,  but  the  lack  of 
knowledge  or  of  moral  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment keeps  them  on  a  level  with  the  grossest 
superstition.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  men  had 
no  knowledge  of  natural  law,  if  a  pestilence  broke 
out  they  had  no  recourse  but  the  performance  of 
some  rite,  superstitious  or  religious,  commonly 
both ;  and  meanwhile  the  pestilence  raged  and 
devastated  the  community.  In  such  cases  also  it 
is  plain  that  the  kingdom  had  not  fully  come, 
and  that  it  could  not  come  until  the  religious  will 
had  been  supplemented  by  the  appropriate  know- 
ledge. 

The  kingdom,  then,  may  be  hindered  by  two 


310  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

things :  first,  the  evil  will,  which  is  the  great  root 
of  human  trouble;  and  second,  by  the  ignorance 
of  God's  will,  the  failure  to  understand  him,  to 
enter  into  his  spirit,  to  know  what  he  is  and  what 
he  means  for  men.  The  evil  will,  then,  and  the 
ignorant  will,  are  the  great  enemies  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  not  until  they  are  both  removed 
can  that  which  is  perfect  come. 

Let  us  say,  then,  that  the  coming  of  the  king- 
dom would  involve  not  only  the  exorcism  of  the 
evil  will  and  its  replacement  by  the  surrendered 
and  obedient  will,  but  also  the  removal  of  the 
multitudinous  misunderstandings  and  ignorances 
which  prevent  us  from  appreciating  and  posi- 
tively realizing  God's  purpose  for  man.  From  this 
point  of  view  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  would 
consist  in  the  multitudinous  renovations  of  life 
and  society  which  the  wise  good  will  should  ac- 
complish. It  would  not  consist  in  any  other-world- 
liness  or  ascetic  piety,  but  in  the  subordination  of 
the  2"reat  normal  human  life  with  all  its  interests 
to  the  will  of  God,  and  the  development  of  that 
life,  individually  and  socially,  into  its  highest  and 
noblest  form,  so  that  the  good  will  within  may 
find  perfect  expression  without,  in  the  human 
unfolding:  and  social  order  which  are  the  divine 
purpose  for  men. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM  311 

concrete  has  a  material,  intellectual,  and  social  basis 
as  well  as  a  formally  religious  one ;  and  both  are 
equally  necessary.  In  God 's  plan  both  alike  are  in- 
cluded, and  neither  can  dispense  with  the  other. 
The  Church  must  work  for  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom,  but  so  must  the  school,  science,  inven- 
tion, and  all  the  rest.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  in  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  two  factors  are 
involved:  first,  the  exorcism  of  the  evil  will  and 
its  replacement  by  the  sanctified  will ;  and  second, 
the  development  of  life  in  all  its  possibilities  and 
powers  as  representing  God's  will  concerning  us. 
It  involves,  then,  not  only  the  exorcism  of  the 
evil  will,  but  also  the  exorcism  of  ignorance,  of 
superstition,  of  disease,  of  bondage  to  physical 
needs,  of  the  thousand  things  which  hinder  full 
and  perfect  life.  Hence  it  involves  also  the  de- 
velopment of  the  individual  in  all  his  powers, 
and  the  development  of  social  relations  into  their 
perfect  form,  for  man  comes  to  himself  only  in 
society;  and  without  a  developed  social  order, 
which  makes  possible  and  conserves  the  gains  of 
the  individual,  man  would  never  emerge  from  the 
savage  state.  Thus  we  are  introduced  to  the 
whole  fabric  of  the  social  order,  and  to  the  entire 
mechanism  of  life,  as  the  conditions  of  man  at- 
taining to  himself  and  thus  fulfilling  his  destiny. 
Not  simply  to  mean  well,  but  to  work  for  the 


312  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

realization  of  ideal  life,  is  our  duty,  and  what- 
ever that  realization  evolves  is  to  be  looked  upon 
as  also  God's  will. 

The  view  thus  set  forth  is  comparatively  a  re- 
cent growth  in  popular  religious  thought.  Here 
and  there,  indeed,  prophets  and  saints  have  dis- 
cerned it,  but  in  the  main  religious  thought  has 
not  attained  to  it.  This  it  shares  to  some  extent 
with  ethical  doctrine  itself.  Ethics  has  largely 
been  one-sided  and  abstract,  and  has  failed  to 
connect  with  the  great  concrete  life  of  the  real 
human  world.  It  has  dealt  with  intentions  and 
principles  and  categorical  imperatives  and  the 
absolute  value  of  the  good  will.  Well,  these  are 
all  important  in  their  place,  but  at  best  they  are 
only  half  the  matter.  The  good  will  must  will 
something  in  order  to  exist  at  all;  the  abstract 
good  will  that  wills  nothing  is  itself  nothing.  In 
order  to  give  the  good  will  any  contents,  or  any 
worthy  task,  we  must  bring  it  out  of  its  abstrac- 
tion and  connect  it  with  life  and  all  our  normal 
human  interests. 

Let  us  put  the  matter  in  another  form.  It  takes 
a  vast  amount  of  work  to  keep  the  world  agoing. 
Think  of  the  work  in  the  millions  of  homes,  the 
work  of  the  farm,  the  school,  the  government, 
the  organization  of  industrial  production,  of  trans- 
portation, of  the  transmission  of  news  and  ideas, 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   313 

etc.  These  things  are  the  foundation  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  without  them  man  could  lead  only  the 
narrowest  and  most  miserable  existence.  Now 
what  is  the  relation  of  morals  and  religion  to  this 
world  of  life  ?  If  they  ignore  it  they  themselves 
become  unimportant  abstractions  and  should 
themselves  be  ignored.  The  true  relation  is  this  : 
Life  represents  the  field  for  moral  and  religious 
action ;  and  morals  and  religion  are  to  move  out 
into  life  and  possess  it,  and  develop  it  into  its 
ideal  form.  All  of  this  work  in  its  great  outlines 
must  go  on,  if  civilization  is  to  endure;  but  it 
should  go  on  under  the  guidance  and  stimulus  of 
morals  and  religion.  This  life  is  to  be  moralized 
and  rationalized ;  it  is  to  be  made  the  expression 
of  right  reason  and  good  will.  This  is  the  posi- 
tive moral  task  of  humanity.  We  are  not  simply 
to  mean  well,  but  we  are  to  develop  our  human 
life  into  its  ideal  form,  and  to  live  the  human  life 
in  a  wise  and  worthy  way. 

The  positive  aim  of  action,  then,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  realization  of  life  itself,  full  and  perfect 
life ;  and  the  field  is  the  world  with  all  its  activi- 
ties. Both  morals  and  religion  are  to  be  valued 
only  as  attempts  to  realize  this  aim.  As  such  they 
presuppose  life,  with  all  its  possibilities,  as  some- 
thing already  provided  for  in  our  constitution, 
and  needing  only  to  be  realized  by  us  in  their 


314  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIAmXY 

highest  and  noblest  form ;  and  for  this  realization 
of  humanity  physical  and  mental  training  is  to 
be  undertaken,  schools  founded,  knowledge  in- 
creased, the  social  order  improved  and  perfected, 
inventions  made,  commerce  extended,  physical 
nature  subdued,  art  encouraged,  and  whatsoever 
else  there  may  be  that  enlarges  and  enriches  life. 
The  moral  spirit,  then,  has  all  fields  for  its  own. 
Here  is  where  asceticism  and  monasticism  have 
made  their  fearful  blunders.  They  have  rightly 
enough  fixed  their  attention  on  the  holy  will  as 
the  centre  of  character ;  but  they  have  mistakenly 
sought  to  cultivate  it  apart  from  the  natural  ob- 
jects for  its  exercise  set  for  it  in  our  constitution. 
They  have  cultivated  an  other-worldliness,  which 
has  sometimes  made  sad  work  of  this.  The  result 
has  been  as  unsaintly  as  it  is  unlovely  and  un- 
happy. And  this  might  have  been  foreseen,  for 
such  a  notion  was  implicitly  an  imputation  upon 
the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  who  is  the 
author  of  our  constitution  and  of  the  general 
order  of  life.  But  the  enlightened  Christian  re- 
coofnizes  that  life  is  the  field  for  our  moral  and 
religious  activity.  He  sees  that  all  things  must 
work  together  to  the  building  up  of  humanity. 
Wealth,  leisure,  learning,  culture,  taste,  art,  and 
a  permanent  subjection  of  physical  forces  are 
needed  to  build  man  into  his  best  estate.  Hence 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   315 

instead  of  denouncing  them,  with  the  ascetic,  he 
seeks  to  bring  them  under  moral  control.  They 
are  the  sources  of  temptation,  to  be  sure,  but  to 
be  without  them  in  some  measure  is  to  be  savages. 
The  conditions,  even  of  an  ideal  earthly  life,  exist 
as  yet  only  to  a  very  limited  extent.  The  race 
must  produce  vastly  more,  and  accumulate  more, 
and  acquire  leisure  for  development  in  the  upper 
ranges  of  existence,  and  subjugate  nature  also 
to  human  service,  so  that  the  drudgery  of  the 
race  shall  be  done  by  cosmic  forces.  All  this 
must  come  to  pass  before  the  kingdom  of  man 
can  come  upon  the  earth.  And  hence  the  wise 
Christian  welcomes  all  these  things.  He  looks 
upon  each  new  discovery,  each  new  invention, 
each  conquest  over  nature,  each  subjugation  of 
physical  forces,  each  unloading  of  human  drudg- 
ery upon  muscles  of  steel,  each  extension  of 
commerce,  each  advance  of  knowledge,  each  in- 
creased facility  for  living,  as  a  veritable  Baptist 
messenger  before  the  face  of  humanity,  declar- 
ing that  the  kingdom  of  man  is  at  hand.  To  war 
against  these  things  is  to  war  against  civilization 
and  to  be  an  emeny  of  the  human  race.  In  and 
through  these  things  the  Christian  spirit  man- 
ifests and  realizes  itself,  as  it  labors  for  the 
upbuilding  and  perfecting  of  men. 

And  that  this  is  so  will  appear  at  once  if  we 


316  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ask  ourselves  what  we  conceive  to  constitute  an 
ideal  human  life.  That  would  not  be  an  ideal  life, 
however  well  meaning  or  devout  or  consecrated 
the  person  might  be,  which  involved  disease, 
ignorance,  narrowness,  superstition,  or  the  lack 
or  atrophy  of  any  of  our  powers.  A  mind  which 
could  not  interest  itself  in  truth  or  duty,  which 
found  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  tiresome,  and 
had  no  high  aspirations,  such  a  mind  could  never 
be  considered  as  other  than  atrophied  or  a  case 
of  arrested  development.  In  God's  dealing  with 
such  persons  we  can  well  believe  in  his  pity,  but 
we  cannot  believe  that  they  represent  his  ideal 
of  humanity.  And  if  we  should  believe  that  such 
persons  are  always  to  remain  in  that  condition, 
never  emerging  into  the  large  and  abundant  life 
of  knowledge,  and  the  enjoyment  of  beauty,  etc., 
it  would  be  for  us  an  unrelieved  horror. 

Thus  it  is  plain  that  the  great  natural  forms  of 
life  are  the  conditions  of  a  large  human  life,  and 
are  included,  therefore,  in  the  divine  plan  for  men. 
Least  of  all  are  they  to  be  viewed  as  sinful  or  as  the 
outcome  of  sin  in  any  way.  They  are  founded  in 
our  constitution  and  our  relations  to  things,  and  will 
be  necessary  so  long  as  this  constitution  remains, 
even  if  the  millennium  should  come.  If  the  mil- 
lennium came  to-morrow,  the  work  of  the  world 
would  have  to  go  on  just  the  same.  All  that  would 


•^ 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   317 

be  eliminated  would  be  the  evil  will  and  the  results 
which  flow  from  it.  Education,  trade,  transpor- 
tation, farming,  mining,  the  manifold  productive 
industries  of  the  world,  the  administration  of 
government,  all  would  go  on  or  civilization  would 
perish.  These  are  absolutely  necessary  conditions 
of  any  large  human  life,  as  we  are  at  present  con- 
stituted, and  man  could  not  be  man  without  them. 
Not  less  trade  is  needed,  but  more  conscience  in 
the  traders;  not  less  production,  but  a  finer  spirit 
in  both  producers  and  consumers.  We  need  not 
less  knowledge  or  wealth  or  taste,  but  far  more 
of  all — but  all  of  them  used  for  the  enlargement 
and  upbuilding  of  men.  God's  will  concerning 
us  involves  activity  in  all  these  lines,  an  activity 
beyond  anything  yet  attained,  but  it  also  involves 
the  subordination  of  all  these  activities  to  the 
spirit  of  love  and  righteousness ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian spirit,  instead  of  withdrawing  from  this  life, 
is  to  move  out  into  it  and  possess  it,  into  the  great 
institutions  of  humanity,  the  family,  the  school, 
the  state,  and  build  them  into  harmony  with  the 
will  of  God.  Then  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
kingdom  of  man,  which  are  essentially  the  same, 
will  come. 

Religion,  we  have  said,  was  misled  in  this  mat- 
ter by  the  abstractions  of  theoretical  ethics.  Both 
fixed  their  attention  on  the  holy  will  as  the  centre 


318  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

of  the  moral  life.  In  this  they  were  right ;  and  it 
cannot  be  said  that  they  over-emphasized  the  holy 
■will,  but  rather  that  they  under-emphasized  the 
natural  order  of  life  as  the  great  field  of  moral 
activity,  and  thus  left  the  moral  life  without  any 
proper  object  and  field.  In  addition  to  this  source 
of  error,  religion  was  further  misled  by  misconcep- 
tions of  its  own.  Salvation  itself  has  largely  been 
conceived  in  a  selfish  way  as  a  means  of  escaping 
external  danger;  there  was  comparatively  little 
desire  after  God,  or  after  spiritual  life,  and  equally 
little  generous  and  magnanimous  desire  to  work 
for  and  with  God.  Our  native  selfishness  has  won 
some  of  its  greatest  triumphs  and  made  its  most 
odious  manifestations  in  its  conception  of  salvation. 
A  mistaken  theology  also  helped  to  increase  the 
delusion.  The  world  was  supposed  to  be  hopelessly 
bankrupt,  and  nothing  good  could  be  made  out 
of  it.  It  was  mortgaged  to  the  devil,  and  he  had 
foreclosed.  The  Church,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a 
kind  of  life-raft  to  save  a  few  here  and  there  from 
a  sinking  wreck,  but  there  was  little  thought  that 
this  earth  should  be  made  one  of  the  many  man- 
sions in  the  Father's  house.  Such  a  view  was  ex- 
cusable at  a  time  when  the  ancient  civilization  was 
decaying  and  the  end  of  the  world  was  supposed 
to  be  near,  but  it  became  pernicious  as  history 
wore  on,  and  the  end  of  the  world  was  indefi- 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   319 

nitely  postponed.  It  gave  rise  to  the  disastrous  dis- 
tinction between  the  religious  and  the  secular, 
which  has  so  fatally  led  men  astray.  Some  things 
were  supposed  to  belong  to  rehgion  and  some 
other  things  to  the  world,  and  religious  duties 
could  all  be  performed  in  a  religious  field,  while 
secular  duties  owed  little  or  no  allegiance  to  God. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  this  notion  led  to  asceticism 
and  monasticism,  and  we  are  by  no  means  clear 
of  it  yet.  Religion  is  still  largely  conceived  as  a 
specialty  or  as  a  detached  movement,  which  has 
no  gearing  with  life  as  a  whole.  It  tends  to  with- 
draw itself  from  the  secular,  which  it  calls  pro- 
fane, and  to  carry  on  a  set  of  formal  rites  or 
services  in  a  vacuum,  from  which  all  every-day 
interests  have  been  excluded.  Hence  it  is  no  un- 
common thing  to  find  in  religious  circles  an  in- 
difference to  social  and  civic  duties,  on  the  ground 
of  their  unspirituahty.  And  the  tacit  assumption 
is  very  general  that  the  higher  and  finer  virtues 
of  character  flourish  only  in  holy  retirement 
from  life  and  its  clamorous  interests.  In  many 
circles  wealth,  intellect,  culture,  taste  are  dispar- 
aged, especially  by  those  who  lack  them,  as  hos- 
tile to  spiritual  growth;  and  the  very  distinction 
of  the  religious  from  the  secular  illustrates  or 
expresses  the  aberration  of  religious  thought  on 
this  subject.  Even  now  the  most  useful  citizens 


320  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

are  not  always  church  members.  The  men  most 
concerned  for  civic  and  social  righteousness,  the 
men  most  concerned  at  social  injustice  and  most 
filled  with  the  enthusiam  for  humanity  are  by  no 
means  always  in  the  churches  —  an  instructive 
illustration  of  the  danger  of  this  distinction.  For 
one  who  believes  that  this  is  God's  world,  it  is 
nothing  less  than  blasphemy  to  hold  such  a  view. 
To  hold  that  the  study  of  God's  world  or  of  hu- 
man society  is  to  turn  from  God,  or  to  hold  that 
the  normal  relations  of  Hfe  are  defiling,  is  of  the 
same  sort. 

Now  we  escape  these  errors  as  soon  as  we 
recognize  that  this  is  God's  world,  and  that  the 
great  normal  forms  and  interests  of  life  represent 
his  will  and  purpose.  To  think  otherwise  is  to 
assume  that  God  did  not  know  what  he  was  do- 
ing when  he  made  man  and  fitted  up  our  earthly 
home  for  the  field  of  our  development.  The  field 
is  the  world ;  and  this  life  is  the  means  by  which 
he  develops  us,  or  the  raw  material  which  we  are 
to  build  to  its  ideal  form.  The  deepest  thought 
of  Christianity  and  the  deepest  aim  are  not  sal- 
vation, but  life,  large,  full,  and  abundant,  lived, 
however,  in  the  filial  spirit.  This  is  the  deepest 
and  essential  thing.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is 
essential,  but  it  is  only  introductory.  The  forms 
of  worship  and  practices  of  piety  are  important, 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   321 

but  they  are  only  instrumental.  They  are  not  the 
thing,  and  their  significance  consists  entirely  in 
what  they  help  us  to.  The  central  thing  is  the 
recognition  of  the  divine  will  in  all  life  and  the 
loyal  purpose  to  make  that  will  prevail  in  life ; 
first  of  all  in  the  hidden  life  of  the  spirit,  and 
then  in  family  life,  in  social  life,  in  political  life, 
in  trade,  in  art,  in  literature,  in  every  field  of 
human  interest  and  activity.  Religion  must  be 
brought  out  of  its  abstraction  by  being  brought 
into  relation  to  every  aspect  of  life.  Its  concern 
must  be  not  to  make  men  abstractly  good  or 
pious,  but  to  make  them  concretely  good  in  the 
complex  relations  and  duties  of  actual  life.  The 
religious  spirit  must,  indeed,  have  all  fields  for 
its  own ;  at  the  same  time  we  must  remember 
that  all  that  is  normal  to  man  has  its  place  and 
justification  in  the  divine  purpose,  and  would 
appear  in  the  realized  kingdom  of  God  upon 
earth. 

The  growing  recognition  of  this  fact  is  one  of 
the  good  signs  of  the  times.  We  are  not  very 
much  concerned  to-day  about  an  abstract  sal- 
vation, but  we  are  concerned  for  a  concrete 
salvation,  which  shall  bring  man  into  loving 
relations  to  God  and  which  shall  make  human 
conditions  and  surroundings  and  all  social  forms 
an  expression  of  righteousness  and  good-will.  It 


322  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

is  no  longer  the  desire  of  man  to  rescue  an  occa- 
sional sinner  here  and  there  from  a  perishing 
world,  but  it  is  rather  to  lift  that  world  itself 
into  its  ideal  conditions.  We  seek  to  save  the 
community,  to  make  the  social  order  just,  to  put 
away  needless  inequalities,  to  remove  the  obsta- 
cles to  the  development  of  humanity,  to  give 
every  one  a  chance.  We  aim  to  set  the  earth  to 
rights ;  we  pray  that  God's  kingdom  may  come, 
and  we  believe  that  this  prayer  commits  us  to  the 
attitude  of  trying  to  make  it  come,  by  doing  our 
best.  We  do  not  believe  that  this  world  is  a  sink- 
ing ship  or  an  insolvent  concern.  We  rather 
believe  that  God  is  in  it,  and  will  be  in  it  until  it 
shall  be  so  transformed  that  we  might  properly 
speak  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  We  are 
not  very  much  concerned,  either,  about  abstract 
sin,  but  we  are  concerned  about  the  concrete  fact 
that  there  are  people  unwilling  to  do  right  and 
willing  to  do  wrong,  and  we  know  that  this  fact 
is  the  great  source  of  our  sorrows  and  woes,  and 
must  be  removed  before  the  perfect  can  come. 
We  believe  that  this  earth  may  be  made  vastly 
better  than  it  is,  and  this  fact  constitutes  our 
obligation  to  make  it  better,  and  so  we  seek  to 
work  together  with  God  to  bring  in  the  better 
day.  The  human  world  is  nothing  ready-made 
by  God  apart  from  our  activity.  We  must  work 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM   323 

together  with  him.  He  gives  us  the  possibility  and 
leaves  us  to  realize  it,  and  when  we  set  to  work 
in  this  spirit  we  shall  find  that  the  kingdom  will 
be  well  on  its  way.  When  the  kingdom  o£  God 
has  fully  come,  there  will  be  no  grinding  poverty, 
no  guilty  ignorance,  no  disease  resulting  from 
folly  and  sin,  but  there  will  be  peace  and  bless- 
ing and  fellowship  and  helpfulness  everywhere. 

From  our  point  of  view  we  further  see  that  the 
Church  is  not  the  only  institution  of  humanity  or 
the  only  instrument  through  which  God  is  work- 
ing. It  is  but  one  instrument,  and  by  no  means 
the  most  important.  The  family,  the  state,  the 
school,  the  great  ordinance  of  labor,  are  also 
necessary.  All  of  these  institutions  are  of  God's 
appointment,  and  through  them  God  is  working 
out  his  will  concerning  man.  Each  of  these  has  a 
function  which  the  Church  cannot  perform.  And 
in  comparison  with  any  of  these  the  Church,  as 
the  orofanization  which  concerns  itself  with  re- 
ligious  worship,  rites,  and  ordinances,  is  relatively 
insignificant.  None  of  these  institutions  is  perfect 
until  it  is  possessed  and  pervaded  by  the  Christian 
spirit,  but  that  spirit  in  turn  misses  its  own  prin- 
cipal aim  until  it  sees  that  the  field  is  the  world. 
And  by  world  we  mean  such  things  as  govern- 
ment, national  and  municipal,  the  great  indus- 
tries of  society,  the  great  professions,  the  courts 


324  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  justice,  the  fine  arts,  the  hospitals,  the  schools, 
the  work  of  physical  science  and  its  application 
to  life,  the  domestic  economy  of  our  homes,  the 
daily  work  of  all  toilers,  in  short  this  great  com- 
plex of  secular  activity  which  maintains  the 
world  from  day  to  day  and  keeps  society  going. 
This  is  the  field  into  which  morals  and  religion 
are  to  move  and  control.  Here  they  are  to  find 
their  field  ;  and  any  institution,  church  or  other- 
wise, that  stands  apart  from  this  and  condemns 
it  as  irreligious,  or  as  having  no  significance  for 
religion,  is  itself  to  be  condemned  as  an  enemy 
of  God  and  man. 

There  is  another  factor  in  present  thought 
which  also  makes  for  this  view,  and  that  is  the 
immanence  of  God,  or  the  view  which  regards 
God  as  present  in  all  things,  as  the  great  admin- 
istrator of  the  world,  as  being  its  continual  source 
on  whom  all  things  forever  depend  and  from 
whom  they  all  proceed.  Our  occidental  religion 
generally  for  many  generations  has  been  of  a 
crude  deistic  type,  with  the  conception  of  a  self- 
running  world  and  an  absentee  God.  Nature  was 
supposed  to  be  made  by  God  and  set  going  in  a 
kind  of  general  way,  so  that  the  great  mass  of 
events  represented  no  divine  purpose  but  only  a 
sort  of  by-product  of  the  cosmic  machine.  The 
result  was  that  God  was  perpetually  on  the  point 


MODERN  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD'S  KINGDOM  325 

of  vanishing,  except  as  he  showed  his  person  by 
an  occasional  miracle  now  and  then,  just  to  let 
us  know  that  he  still  lived.  By  consequence  the 
presence  of  God  was  thought  to  be  revealed 
only  in  strange  and  marvelous  happenings,  while 
the  ordinary  movement  of  life,  the  intuitions  of 
conscience,  the  revelations  of  reason,  the  pro- 
ducts of  education  and  training,  were  thought 
to  have  no  divine  character  whatever.  Now  this 
is  passing  away,  and  we  are  coming  to  take  in 
strict  literalness  the  words  of  Paul  that  in  him 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  for  he  is 
not  far  from  any  one  of  us.  By  consequence  we 
are  finding  God  in  the  orderly  movements  of 
the  world,  in  the  administration  of  the  laws  he 
has  made,  in  the  purpose  he  has  indicated,  in  the 
results  of  education  and  of  all  that  can  be  wrought 
out  through  the  use  and  application  of  the  laws 
of  things.  Thus  he  works  with  us  and  through  us 
to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure,  and  thus 
the  cosmic  mechanism  that  for  a  long  time  was 
such  a  terror  to  many  is  becoming  transformed 
with  the  divine  presence  and  expresses  a  divine 
meaning. 

I  dream  of  a  time  when  humanity  shall  come  to 
its  own,  when  physical  nature  shall  be  subdued 
to  human  service  beyond  all  present  conception, 
when  want  and  disease  shall  have  disappeared, 


326  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

when  the  social  order  shall  be  an  expresssion  of 
perfect  justice,  when  the  race  shall  be  rich  enough 
to  afford  all  its  members  the  opportunity  of  a 
truly  human  existence,  when  the  bondage  of  phy- 
sical drudgery  shall  have  been  taken  off  from  hu- 
man shoulders,  when  the  treasures  of  knowledge 
shall  be  a  universal  possession,  and  when  over 
against  these  external  conditions  there  shall  be 
a  moral  spirit  wise  enough  to  use  them  and  strong 
enough  to  control  them.  Then  the  kingdom  of 
man  and  of  God  will  have  come.  And  to  turn  this 
dream  into  a  reality  is  the  Christian  programme, 
the  true  meaning  of  the  prayer,  so  often  uttered 
and  so  seldom  understood,  "  Thy  kingdom  come; 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven." 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS 

It  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  our  human  life  that 
some  of  our  worst  woes  spring  from  our  higher 
nature,  and  even  from  the  moral  and  religious 
nature  itself.  Sympathy,  without  which  there  could 
be  no  society,  is  often  a  pronounced  enemy  of 
righteousness  and  the  common  good.  Hence 
Kant  declared  all  action  springing  from  sym- 
pathy and  similar  emotions  to  be  non-moral,  as 
rooted  in  no  moral  insight  and  devotion.  Con- 
science is  often  reactionary  and  obstructive,  and 
all  the  more  so  as  being  conscientious.  Not  with- 
out reason  has  a  French  writer  declared  that  "  vir- 
tue is  more  dangerous  than  vice,  as  the  excesses 
of  virtue  are  subject  to  no  restraints  of  con- 
science." An  ordinary  sinner  may  be  restrained 
by  considerations  of  humanity  or  public  opin- 
ion, but  Pharisaic  fanaticism  knows  no  bounds. 
And  when  this  fanaticism  is  joined  to  religion, 
then  we  have  all  the  conditions  for  the  persecu- 
tions and  religious  wars  which  have  covered  the 
pages  of  history  with  infamy.  Unless  properly 


330  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

directed,  virtue  may  indeed  be  more  dangerous 
than  vice. 

Our  more  dreadful  aberrations  in  this  matter, 
we  may  believe,  are  past ;  but  in  minor  forms  the 
tendency  of  the  moral  nature  to  lose  itself  in  mis- 
chievous reaction  or  obstruction  still  remains  and 
needs  to  be  guarded  against.  Perhaps  we  shall 
better  understand  the  problem  by  taking  a  con- 
crete case  for  illustration  and  guidance. 

There  was  a  prominent  controversy  in  the  prim- 
itive Church  respecting  meats  offered  to  idols  and 
the  duty  of  Christians  in  the  case.  Many  of  the 
disciples  brought  with  them  their  Jewish  traditions 
about  the  matter  and  sought  to  impose  them  on 
the  Church  as  of  abiding  obligation.  The  Gentile 
disciples,  on  the  other  hand,  believed  in  greater 
freedom  and  held  the  Jewish  tradition  as  no  longer 
binding ;  and  some  of  the  more  radical  spirits 
would  seem  to  have  treated  it  with  contempt.  This 
naturally  bred  friction  and  misunderstanding  and 
uncharity.  St.  Paul  discusses  the  subject  in  two 
places,  —  in  his  letter  to  the  Romans  and  in  the 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians. 

This  question  in  its  special  form  has  of  course 
no  interest  for  us  except  as  illustrating  our  prob- 
lem. This  problem,  which  is  perennial,  is  essen- 
tially the  problem  between  conservative  and  pro- 
gressive morality.  It  is  the  problem  of  changing 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  331 

codes  of  conduct.  It  concerns,  also,  the  measure 
of  individual  liberty  and  individual  subordination, 
the  extent  to  which  the  individual  may  assert  his 
own  freedom,  and  the  extent  to  which  he  shall 
subordinate  it  out  of  consideration  for  others. 
This  problem  continually  emerges  in  social 
changes.  Old  customs  are  outgrown.  Traditions 
become  obsolete,  new  duties  arise,  and  our  con- 
crete codes  of  conduct  demand  revision.  Without 
this  revision  conscience  falls  behind  social  and 
intellectual  development,  and  may  even  become 
an  enemy  of  truth  and  righteousness.  And  un- 
less matters  be  rightly  understood,  there  will  be 
indefinite  confusion  and  friction.  Virtue  will  be 
made  odious  or  ridiculous ;  and  progress,  being 
made  with  violence  and  defiance,  will  lose  much  of 
its  blessing.  Hence  the  interest  and  importance 
of  the  old  debate. 

Likewise,  Paul's  decision  of  the  specific  case 
has  no  longer  any  interest  for  us ;  but  his  mode 
of  treatment  and  the  principles  by  which  he 
sought  to  solve  it  have  abiding  significance.  As 
to  the  meat  question,  he  agrees  with  the  disciples 
of  liberty.  He  says :  An  idol  is  nothing ;  and 
hence  meat  offered  to  idols  cannot  be  affected 
thereby.  He  advises  his  readers  to  eat  what  is 
sold  in  the  market,  or  what  is  set  before  them  by 
their  hosts,  and  be  thankful.  He  adds :  I  know 


332  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

and  am  persuaded  in  the  Lord  Jesus  that  no- 
thing is  unclean  of  itself.  Neither  will  he  allow 
his  liberty  to  be  judged  of  another  man's  con- 
science, as  a  yoke  to  be  imposed  upon  him  from 
without.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  there  be  any 
who  have  not  attained  to  this  insight  and  liberty, 
they  must  follow  their  conscience ;  for  if  any  one 
thinketh  anything  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is 
unclean ;  and  he  that  doubteth  is  condemned  if 
he  eat ;  because  his  action  is  not  the  freedom  of 
Christian  insight,  but  the  transgression  of  his 
conscience. 

But  this  is  not  the  end  of  the  matter.  St.  Paul 
tries  to  hft  the  whole  subject  to  a  higher  plane 
and  to  view  it  in  the  light  of  principles.  In  the 
first  place  he  says :  Let  each  man  be  fully  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind.  This  recognizes  that 
every  one  must  be  faithful  to  his  own  conscience. 
At  the  same  time  this  conscience  is  for  himself 
and  not  for  another.  Let  us  not,  therefore,  judge 
one  another  any  more.  Judgment  is  not  ours,  for 
we  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Ood.  Instead  of  this  mutual  judging,  let  love 
reign.  The  brother  with  weak  conscience  is  apt 
to  condemn  the  brother  who  insists  on  hberty 
and  to  view  him  as  yielding  to  sin.  But  the 
hrother  who  insists  on  liberty  is  apt  to  set  at 
naught  the  weak  brother  and  hold  him  in  con- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  333 

tempt.  But  this  also  is  a  mistake ;  for  none  of  us 
liveth  to  himself.  We  may  not,  therefore,  walk 
uncharitably  and  with  our  freedom  grieve  or 
cause  to  stumble  or  destroy  the  brother  for  whom 
Christ  died.  Moreover,  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
not  eating  and  drinking  in  any  case,  but  right- 
eousness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  radical  brother  who  insists  on  his  freedom 
should  remember  this  higher  meaning  of  the 
kingdom.  Likewise  the  brother  of  uneasy  scruples 
should  rise  to  this  larger  view.  Finally,  St.  Paul 
proposes  to  both  parties  to  consider  the  question 
in  the  light  of  a  new  principle :  Whether,  there- 
fore, ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all 
to  the  glory  of  God. 

Thus  I  have  sketched  St.  Paul's  two  discus- 
sions of  the  topic.  As  said  before,  the  special 
problem  has  no  longer  interest  for  us,  except  as 
it  illustrates  a  perennial  problem  of  society. 
Neither  is  St.  Paul's  particular  decision  of  any 
interest  to  us,  but  only  the  principles  which  he 
brings  to  the  discussion.  The  truth  is  that,  ex- 
cept in  the  denial  of  any  essential  uncleanness  in 
things  offered  to  idols,  St.  Paul  does  not  reach 
any  decision.  He  only  lays  down  the  principles 
by  which  both  parties  should  be  guided.  The 
discussion   also  is  not  between  good  and  bad 


334  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

people,  Christians  and  idolaters.  If  it  had  been, 
it  could  easily  have  been  settled.  It  was  rather 
between  progressive  and  conservative  Christians; 
and  the  problem  of  which  this  ancient  debate 
was  only  a  special  case  is,  as  I  have  said,  the 
problem  of  progress  and  conservatism  in  morals, 
of  the  freedom  and  subordination  of  the  indi- 
vidual. And  these  problems  admit  of  no  definite 
and  final  solution.  They  can  be  solved  only  ap- 
proximately in  any  case ;  and  no  good  result  can 
be  reached  unless  they  are  studied  in  the  light 
of  the  Apostle's  principles.  These  are  :  — 

First.  The  sacredness  of  the  individual's  con- 
science for  himself. 

Second.  The  duty  of  charity  toward  others 
who  differ  from  us. 

Third.  The  duty  of  subordinating  life  and  lib- 
erty to  love  and  the  glory  of  God. 

The  problem  in  question  arises  naturally  from 
the  form  of  our  moral  development.  The  only 
thing  that  is  fixed  and  absolute  in  morals  is  the 
good  will  and  the  will  to  do  right.  The  law  of 
love  and  the  loyalty  to  what  we  conceive  to  be 
right  are  of  absolute  and  inalienable  obligation. 
No  outside  authority  and  no  conceivable  change 
of  circumstances  can  absolve  us  from  this  cen- 
tral and  basal  duty.  But  this  does  not  tell  us 
what  is  to  be  done  in  any  particular  case.  It  only 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  335 

reveals  the  spirit  in  which  we  should  live.  What 
this  spirit  demands  in  the  actual  circumstances 
of  life  is  not  decided,  and  remains  a  problem  for 
wisdom  and  experience  to  solve.  Thus  a  physician 
may  love  the  patient  as  himself,  but  that  does 
not  reveal  the  mode  of  treating  the  disease.  The 
legislator  may  be  impartially  devoted  to  the  pub- 
lic good,  but  that  does  not  insure  wise  legisla- 
tion. For  this  he  must  have  practical  wisdom,  a 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  of  social  needs,  of 
economic  laws,  of  the  political  situation.  The 
philanthropist  may  have  the  Golden  Rule  for  his 
motto,  and  he  could  not  well  have  a  better ;  but 
this  alone  will  not  reveal  how  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  public  charity.  For  this  he  needs  not 
merely  a  soft  heart,  but  also  a  hard  and  wise 
head,  well  furnished  with  knowledge  of  human 
nature  and  social  problems  and  conditions.  The 
physician,  the  legislator,  the  philanthropist,  who 
are  furnished  only  with  good  intentions,  are  not 
likely  to  be  useful  people,  however  well  they  may 
mean  or  however  good  they  may  be.  The  con- 
crete code  is  a  function  of  knowledge  as  well  as 
of  good  intentions.  If  our  action  is  to  be  wise, 
it  must  be  adjusted  to  reality  and  the  present 
conditions  of  things.  Hence  it  must  vary  with 
knowledge  and  also  with  social  development. 
In  these  illustrations  we  see  clearly  that  in 


336  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

concrete  action  there  are  two  factors:  the 
moral  intention  and  motive,  and  a  judgment 
based  on  reflection  and  the  indications  of  expe- 
rience. And  the  same  is  true  for  all  practical 
codes.  They  have  the  same  double  aspect,  the 
moral  intention  and  the  judgment  of  wisdom. 
They  are  no  original  intuition  of  conscience,  but 
the  slowly  built-up  result  of  generations  of  life 
and  experience.  The  moral  nature  itself  is  slowly 
developed,  and  the  practical  insight  whereby  it 
reaches  the  best  form  of  conduct  is  developed 
more  slowly  still.  Throughout  this  development 
men  may  be  moral,  in  the  sense  that  they  act 
from  moral  principles ;  but  owing  to  their  lack 
of  knowledge,  both  of  the  inner  and  outer  world, 
they  attain  only  to  very  imperfect  codes ;  just  as 
physicians,  while  always  aiming  at  the  cure  of 
the  patient,  because  of  ignorance  have  fallen  into 
great  errors  of  practice. 

Now  this  general  fact  has  for  its  result  that 
our  codes  of  conduct  are  no  fixed  quantities,  but 
are  ever  undergoing  change.  The  elementary 
duties,  of  course,  are  abiding ;  but  on  the  outer 
edges  of  expanding  life  change  will  always  be 
going  on.  With  the  growth  of  knowledge,  the 
increase  of  experience,  the  clearer  indication  of 
tendencies,  there  will  be  a  change  of  judgment 
as  to  what  should  be  done  or  left  undone.  Some 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  337 

things  thought  harmful  will  be  found  harmless. 
Some  things  thought  harmless  will  be  found  per- 
nicious. Social  customs  will  be  modified  to  meet 
new  conditions.  Business  practices  will  be  ad- 
justed to  public  policy  or  the  common  good. 
With  the  deepening  of  spiritual  insight,  also, 
many  things  thought  essential  to  religion  will  be 
seen  to  be  indifferent ;  and  other  things  which 
may  have  been  overlooked  will  be  lifted  into  per- 
petual obligation.  Thus  our  codes  of  Hfe,  our 
social  customs,  our  personal  habits,  our  political 
practices,  are  always  undergoing  criticism  in  a 
living  community,  and  are  slowly  being  adjusted 
to  growing  knowledge  and  experience.  In  this 
way  a  great  improvement  in  our  codes  has  been 
brought  about  within  the  historical  period,  and 
even  within  recent  years.  We  need  look  back 
only  a  hundred  years  to  find  great  advance  in 
Christian  codes.  The  saints  of  a  century  ago 
would  hardly  be  tolerated  to-day.  Distinguished 
saints  owned  distilleries  and  defended  the  slave 
trade.  Lotteries  were  used  for  the  endowment  of 
colleges  and  the  building  of  churches,  but  now 
they  are  outlawed.  Religion  has  been  purified 
and  rationalized,  social  customs  ameliorated,  laws 
humanized,  and  the  empire  of  conscience  has 
been  extended  over  larger  and  larger  fields  of 
life.  We  may  have  no  better  intentions  than  our 


338  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ancestors,  and  in  that  sense  may  be  no  more 
moral ;  but  we  are  wiser,  and  our  codes  and  cus- 
toms are  better  adjusted  to  life  and  reality. 

And  a  second  result  of  this  fact  of  develop- 
ment is  that  there  will  always  be  a  border  of 
conduct  concerning  which  good  men  are  not 
agreed.  They  will  all  agree  that  the  right  thing 
should  be  done,  but  they  will  differ  concerning 
the  thing  to  do.  Some  will  cling  to  habit,  to  cus- 
tom, to  tradition,  and  will  view  any  departure 
therefrom  with  suspicion  and  alarm.  Others, 
more  adventurous,  will  wish  to  try  the  new  and 
to  improve  the  old.  Or  some  with  scanty  experi- 
ence and  narrow  outlook  will  have  no  sense  of 
the  need  of  readjustment,  and  will  look  upon 
the  demand  for  it  as  an  expression  of  lawless- 
ness and  disloyalty  to  the  truth.  Others  of 
larger  life  and  outlook  will  feel  the  inadequacy 
of  the  old  and  the  need  that  it  yield  to  the  new 
as  a  better  expression  of  the  truth. 

There  would  be  no  objection  to  this  opposition 
if  it  were  ruled  by  the  spirit  of  charity.  It  would 
then  be  simply  the  opposition  of  conservatism 
and  progress,  each  of  which  is  needed  to  keep 
the  other  sane  and  sweet.  Without  the  criticism 
by  conservatism,  progress  would  be  unsteady  and 
flighty.  And  without  the  criticism  by  progress, 
conservatism  would    slumber  in  ignorance  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  339 

sloth.  Unfortunately,  the  matter  is  not  always 
understood,  and  charity  is  often  wanting.  From 
lack  of  understanding  the  difference  is  commonly 
supposed  to  be  a  moral  one,  whereas  it  is  only  a 
difference  of  judgment  as  to  what  is  wise  in  the 
case.  From  failure  to  understand  the  derived 
and  developed  nature  of  codes,  also,  the  conser- 
vative is  apt  to  regard  the  traditional  code  as  an 
absolute  deliverance  of  conscience  or  a  revelation 
from  God.  Thus  the  code  itself  is  sanctified  as 
something  inviolably  sacred,  and  its  critics  are 
made  to  appear  as  the  enemies  of  God  and  right- 
eousness. In  this  way  the  authority  of  God  and 
conscience  has  been  invoked  for  numberless  cru- 
dities, imbecilities,  and  iniquities,  and  has  been 
made  one  of  the  mainstays  of  political  and  eccle- 
siastical oppression.  In  the  larger  questions  of 
political  and  ecclesiastical  progress,  the  untaught 
and  sophisticated  conscience  has  been  one  of 
the  great  obstacles.  The  divine  right  of  kings, 
the  passive  obedience  of  subjects,  the  sin  of  re- 
sisting authority,  no  matter  how  iniquitous  it 
might  be,  especially  the  sin  of  criticising  ecclesi- 
astical authority,  the  depravity  of  thinking  criti- 
cally about  religious  teaching,  —  all  these  things 
have  been  stoutly  insisted  upon  in  the  name  of 
God  and  conscience.  In  minor  matters  the  same 
way  of  thinking  has  produced  a  rich  variety  of 


340  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

grotesque  and  artificial  notions,  which  are  sup- 
posed to  be  the  very  gist  of  morality.  Styles  of 
clothing,  forms  of  speech,  social  customs,  have 
been  insisted  upon,  which  at  best  were  justifiable 
only  as  temporary  reactions  against  conditions 
then  existing,  but  which  for  the  most  part  were 
merely  expressions  of  their  authors'  ignorance, 
poverty,  lack  of  social  outlook  and  spiritual  in- 
sight. And  on  this  pitiable  basis  they  have  often 
fallen  into  Pharisaism  and  spiritual  pride  and  un- 
charity  beyond  anything  possible  to  an  ordinary 
sinner. 

One  readily  sees  that  when  this  dual  origin  of 
concrete  codes  is  overlooked  or  unsuspected, 
conscience  may  easily  become  an  enemy  of  pro- 
gress and  even  of  humanity.  Current  thought  in 
religion,  current  customs  in  society,  even  current 
whims  in  our  particular  sect,  are  invested  with 
inviolable  sacredness;  and  the  tithing  of  mint, 
anise,  and  cummin  takes  its  place  along  with  the 
weigfhtiest  matters  of  the  law.  Then  the  whole 
force  of  the  moral  and  religious  nature  is  invoked 
to  defend  some  caricature  of  good  sense  or  to 
justify  some  hoary  folly  and  iniquity.  Such  facts 
give  color  to  Mr.  Mill's  claim  that  the  appeal  to 
conscience  is  an  appeal  from  reason  to  prejudice 
and  superstition.  This  is  true  of  the  conventional 
social  conscience  which,  as  just  said,  has  often 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  341 

been  the  bulwark  of  blind  conservatism  and  op- 
pression. In  such  cases  the  appeal  should  be  not 
only  to  conscience  but  to  science,  political  econ- 
omy, and  social  philosophy  as  well. 

Mr.  Mill's  claim  is  still  truer  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical conscience,  which  is  very  often  arbitrary  and 
artificial.  In  Russia  it  is  a  question  with  this  con- 
science whether  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross 
with  two  fingers  or  three.  The  same  kind  of  con- 
science is  strong  on  the  sanctity  of  saints'  days, 
and  finds  in  the  cremation  of  the  dead,  which  is 
purely  a  question  of  sanitary  science,  a  denial 
of  the  resurrection.  What  would  become  of  the 
"noble  army  of  martyrs  "  in  that  case  is  left  un- 
decided. Religious  casuistry  which  is  not  based 
on  universal  rational  morality  is  sure  to  fall  into 
whims  of  this  sort.  Artificial  commands  are  given 
the  sanction  of  eternal  principles ;  and  failure  to 
observe  some  ecclesiastical  regulation  is  viewed 
as  worse  than  a  violation  of  justice  or  good-will 
or  any  ordinary  crime.  A  striking  peculiarity  of 
these  artificial  duties  is  that  they  are  very  apt  to 
overtop  the  genuine.  When  one  gets  to  tithing 
mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law  are  likely  to  be  overlooked.  The  rank  and 
file  of  any  religious  body  which  has  made  an  arti- 
ficial issue  are  pretty  sure  to  regard  the  rites  and 
customs  which  have  grown  out  of  it  as  of  more 


342  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

sacred  obligation  than  the  moral  law.  I  recall  the 
case  of  a  man  who  had  been  brought  up  on  the 
notion  of  the  impiety  of  singing  hymns.  Once, 
at  the  bedside  of  a  dying  friend  who  wished  a 
hymn  sung,  he  consented  to  start  the  tune,  as  no 
one  else  present  could  do  it.  But  his  conscience 
so  smote  him  that  he  afterward  said  he  felt  worse 
than  if  he  had  stolen  a  horse  —  a  statement  which, 
from  my  experience  with  this  type  of  conscience, 
I  am  inclined  to  think  was  true. 

Pseudo-spirituality  abounds  in  this  sort  of  thing 
in  more  or  less  striking  forms,  and  the  result  is 
to  produce  a  narrow  and  sophisticated  type  of 
piety,  which  is  very  often  followed  by  revolt  when 
the  fiction  is  seen  through.  One  of  the  most  dan- 
gerous pieces  of  mental  furniture  for  an  otherwise 
well-meaning  youth,  in  the  present  temper  of 
thought,  is  a  conscience  which  has  been  sophis- 
ticated by  this  sort  of  moral  teaching.  For  it  is 
likely  to  be  seen  through  sooner  or  later,  and 
then  the  suspicion  will  naturally  arise  that  the 
rest  of  the  teaching  is  of  the  same  arbitrary  sort. 
And  if  it  is  not  seen  through,  the  result  is  even 
worse.  In  that  case  a  Pharisaic  censoriousness 
is  commonly  generated,  which  is  odious  alike  to 
God  and  man.  Another  result  of  this  pseudo- 
spirituality  is  to  make  religion  contemptible  in 
the  eyes  of  all  who  have  some  sense  of  reality 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS    343 

and  of  the  real  issues  of  life.  There  is  a  strong 
and  growing  impatience  among  thoughtful  per- 
sons with  religious  pettiness.  There  is  a  demand 
that  religion  shall  justify  itself  by  a  large  and 
sympathetic  grasp  of  life  and  by  corresponding 
effort  among  the  real  issues  of  society.  Selfishness, 
animalism,  thoughtlessness,  ignorance,  —  these 
are  the  things  to  be  combated.  Personal  integrity, 
civic  honor  and  devotion,  love  in  the  family,  and 
justice  and  good-will  in  the  community,  —  these 
are  the  things  to  be  secured.  And  when  one  is 
concerned  with  these  things,  with  the  real  king- 
dom of  God  which  is  to  be  brought  in,  one 
cannot  escape  a  feeling  of  anticlimax  and  of  in- 
sufferable pettiness  when  confronted  with  these 
artificial  issues. 

Every  one  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory knows  how  much  of  this  artificial  morality 
and  pseudo-spirituality  there  has  been  in  the 
Church.  And  for  this  state  of  affairs  there  is  no 
speedy  cure.  Cure  must  be  a  vital  process,  involv- 
ing the  growth  of  intelligence  and  the  clarifying 
of  the  moral  vision.  It  will  help,  however,  if  we 
remember  that  our  codes  of  conduct  must  vary 
with  growing  knowledge,  and  that  there  will  al- 
ways be  an  indefinite  frontier  where  good  men 
may  differ  as  to  what  should  be  done,  without 


344  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

any  prejudice  to  the  sincerity  of  their  moral  pur- 
pose. Many  moral  problems  are  indeterminate  in 
themselves.  Thus,  who  can  sharply  define  what 
spirituality  implies  ?  or  mark  off  in  clear  outline 
the  exhaustive  code  of  the  religious  life  ?  Of 
course  the  thing  is  impossible,  for  this  life  is  a 
spirit  rather  than  a  code,  and  can  never  be  ex- 
haustively expressed  in  rules.  Again,  as  soon  as 
•we  get  away  from  the  routine  of  daily  life,  the 
thing  to  be  done  is  not  easily  discerned,  and  good 
men  may  and  do  differ  in  their  judgments. 

It  will  equally  help  in  solving  this  problem  if 
we  recognize  the  absolute  legitimacy  of  the  life 
that  now  is,  and  of  all  its  normal  impulses,  in- 
stincts, interests,  and  activities.  Any  legislation 
is  to  be  condemned  which  stigmatizes  as  common 
or  unclean  anything  which  belongs  to  normal 
human  life ;  and  any  such  legislation  is  danger- 
ous which  aims  to  reach  a  higher  spirituality  in 
any  other  way  than  by  faithfully  abiding  in  the 
work  of  life,  and  by  the  constant  reference  of 
that  life  to  the  will  of  God.  The  aim  of  religion  is 
not  only  to  get  men  to  go  to  church  and  pray,  but 
also,  and  much  more  fundamentally,  to  make  men 
conscious  of  the  divine  will  and  presence  in  life, 
until  the  world  shall  become  God's  temple,  in 
which  men  perpetually  offer  up  the  daily  life, 
with  all  its  interests  and  activities  pervaded  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  345 

sanctified  by  the  filial  spirit,  as  their  spiritual 
worship  of  God.  It  was  oversight  of  this  fact 
which  led  to  the  fearful  blunders  of  asceticism 
and  its  monastic  outcome.  A  secret  failure  to 
appreciate  this  fact  underlies  the  popular  identi- 
fication of  religion  with  formal  rites  of  worship. 
But  whatever  ascetic  renunciation  or  disciplin- 
ary rigor  may  be  possible  for  a  time,  or  in  small 
bodies,  it  is  certain  that  no  religious  organization 
will  become  general,  or  long  command  the  lives 
of  men,  which  is  not  as  broad  as  humanity  itself. 
Narrower  conceptions  may  serve  for  a  time, 
and  may  even  seem  justified  in  their  origin,  as 
revolts  or  protests  against  a  prevailing  looseness 
or  indifference;  but  even  then  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  they  do  not  cost  all  they  are  worth  by 
the  time  we  are  done  with  them. 

The  Church  as  a  whole  has  been  prone  to  un- 
wisdom in  this  regard.  It  has  taken  John  the 
Baptist,  the  austere  and  ascetic  dweller  in  the 
desert,  for  its  model,  rather  than  the  Master, 
who  came  eating  and  drinking,  who  knew  what 
was  in  man,  and  who  moved  about  among  the 
humanities  of  life,  sharing  in  them,  sympathiz- 
ing with  them,  and  looking  upon  them  with  so 
loving  an  eye  as  to  give  place  and  point  to  the 
charge  that  he  was  a  glutton  and  a  wine-bibber, 
a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  And  the  Church 


346  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

will  not  become  the  Church  of  Humanity  until 
it  finds  a  holy  place  for  all  the  interests  of  hu- 
manity. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  problem  in  the  primitive 
Church  about  Jewish  feasts  and  eating  meat 
offered  to  idols  is  only  a  special  case  of  a  general 
problem  inherent  in  the  very  form  of  our  human 
life.  And  now  we  are  ready  to  apply  Paul's  prin- 
ciples to  its  solution. 

First,  let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind  and  obey  his  own  conscience.  To  be 
sure,  conscience  is  far  from  infallible,  and  the 
conscience  of  many  men  is  a  very  curious  organ ; 
but  such  as  it  is  every  man  must  obey  it.  He 
must  do  the  thing  which  to  him  seems  right.  He 
may  be  mistaken ;  a  broader  knowledge  might 
change  his  mind ;  but  so  long  as  anything  seems 
to  him  right,  he  must  be  loyal  to  it,  no  matter 
who  differs  from  him.  If,  then,  there  be  any 
social  customs  of  which  he  disapproves,  he  must 
avoid  them  ;  and  if  there  be  anything  not  recog- 
nized as  duty  by  society,  but  clearly  presented 
as  such  to  him,  that  one  thing  he  must  do.  No 
power  in  heaven  or  in  earth  can  absolve  him 
from  obedience  to  his  convictions  of  right. 

But  this  conscience  is  his  own,  not  another's. 
He  may  recommend  his  view  to  others ;  he  may 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  347 

give  reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him  ;  but 
when  he  insists  on  imposing-  it  on  others  he  may 
be  assuming  a  knowledge  which  he  does  not  pos- 
sess ;  and  when  he  concludes  that  those  who  dif- 
fer from  him  are  morally  unfaithful,  he  then  as- 
sumes a  knowledge  of  the  heart  which  he  cannot 
possess  and  falls  into  Pharisaic  uncharity.  For  most 
of  these  questions  which  lie  in  the  field  of  moral 
change  and  progress  cannot  be  settled  by  talking 
or  by  any  short  process  whatever.  They  often 
involve  profound  changes  of  opinion,  mental  illu- 
mination, changes  of  personal  habit  and  social 
usage ;  and  these  things  are  not  brought  about 
in  a  day.  Only  a  person  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
world  and  life  would  dream  of  effecting  such 
changes  by  a  syllogism  or  an  exhortation.  Every 
other  person  knows  that  such  processes  are  age- 
long in  duration ;  every  other  person  knows  the 
entire  futility  of  impatience  and  browbeating  and 
denunciation  in  hastening  the  result;  and  every 
other  person  also  knows  that  until  that  which  is 
perfect  is  come,  good  men  will  be  found  on  both 
sides  of  such  questions.  It  may  be  from  defective 
knowledge,  from  insufficient  reflection,  from  one- 
sided sympathy ;  but  whatever  the  cause,  the 
fact  will  lono"  exist. 

Now  in  such  a  state  of  affairs  we  must  apply 
the  Apostle's  first  rule,  let  every  one  be  fully 


348  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

persuaded  in  his  own  mind  ;  and  also  his  second 
rule,  charity  of  judgment.  Who  art  thou  that 
judgest  another?  To  his  own  master  he  shall 
stand  or  fall.  This  second  rule  is  the  one  most 
frequently  violated  in  this  matter.  Reformers 
especially  are  not  content  with  having  a  con- 
science for  themselves  and  with  seeking  by  ra- 
tional means  to  brings  others  to  the  same  mind, 
but  they  denounce  those  who  differ  from  them, 
and  thus  injure  their  own  cause  and  bring  them- 
selves into  contempt.  The  history  of  reform  and 
reformers  is  a  sad  and  shocking  exhibition  of  the 
weakness  of  good  men  in  this  respect.  Bitter  and 
violent  denunciation  takes  the  place  of  a  good  ex- 
ample, temperate  reasoning,  and  gracious  charity. 
Or  minor  matters  are  magnified  into  supreme  im- 
portance ;  and  a  strange  blindness  to  proportion 
and  the  relative  importance  of  things  is  induced, 
which,  when  it  becomes  chronic,  is  incurable. 
Thus  the  reformers  themselves  get  by  the  ears 
and  waste  a  large  part  of  their  energy  in  fighting 
and  denouncing  one  another,  instead  of  combin- 
ing against  the  common  foe. 

This  second  rule  of  the  Apostle,  charity  in 
judging  one  another,  we  greatly  need  to  lay  to 
heart.  The  lack  of  it  is  a  crying  scandal  to  all 
good  people  and  one  great  obstacle  to  moral 
progress.    We  all  have  known,  we  all  know,  of 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  349 

reforms  which  are  very  important  to  society  and 
in  which  every  good  man  must  be  profoundly  in- 
terested, which  nevertheless  have  been  carried  on 
with  such  uncharity  and  unscrupulousness,  with 
such  practical  unwisdom  and  ignorance  of  human 
nature,  as  to  defeat  themselves,  or  at  least  most 
seriously  to  thwart  themselves.  And  the  convic- 
tion is  becoming  general  that  nothing  will  ever 
be  done  until  these  unwise  leaders  are  cashiered 
and  replaced  by  others  of  more  practical  insight. 
Of  course  if  we  postpone  reform  until  it  is 
done  just  right,  we  shall  never  get  it.  Even  good 
things  are  rarely  done  in  an  ideal  way  ;  and  the 
weakest  of  all  weak  beings  is  the  person  of  such 
exquisite  taste  that  he  cannot  abide  any  reform 
because  of  the  rude  and  uncultured  and  unaes- 
thetic  character  of  the  reformers.  But  it  is  equally 
sure  that  we  shall  get  reform  a  great  deal  sooner 
if  we  learn  charity  and  eschew  malignant  philan- 
thropy, and  have  our  conscience  for  ourselves 
and  allow  others  to  have  a  conscience  for  them- 
selves, and  penetrate  to  the  unity  of  the  spirit 
which  may  exist  behind  all  diversity  of  judgment 
and  custom. 

St.  Paul  himself  was  on  the  side  of  liberty. 
He  was  not  willing  to  have  his  liberty  judged  of 
another  man's  conscience.  He  was  quite  willing 


350  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

that  another  should  have  a  conscience  for  him- 
self, but  not  for  him.  He  finds,  however,  a  limi- 
tation in  the  law  of  love.  Hence  while  all  things 
are   lawful,   all  things  may  not   be    expedient. 
Christian  love  and  wisdom  must  be  considered  in 
the  use  of  our  freedom.  All  recognize  this.  Thus 
the  truth  may  rightly  be  spoken,  but  he  would 
be  a  very  thoughtless  or  ignorant  person  who  did 
not  see  that  wisdom  must  control  our  freedom 
even  here.  Not  all  and  every  truth  is  adapted  to 
every  person  and  circumstance,  and  it  would  be 
easy  to  misuse  our  freedom  in  this  respect  so  as 
by  our  truth  to  cause  to   stumble   some  weak 
brother  for  whom   Christ  died.    As  good   and 
wholesome  food  may  be  destructive  when  the 
stomach  is  unfitted  for  it,  so  truth  itself  might 
be  destructive  for  one  whose  mind  was  not  pre- 
pared for  its  reception.    Again,  love  is  higher 
than  liberty ;  and  I  must  not  for  the  sake  of 
liberty  needlessly  cause  any  brother  to  stumble. 
Liberty  apart  from  love  is  apt  to  become  un- 
charitable and  contemptuous  and  as  bigoted  as 
bigotry  itself.    But  these  considerations  are  not 
rules  which   give  definite    guidance;  they   are 
rather  principles  in  the  hght  of  which  we  are  to 
act,  and  which  each  one  is  to  apply  for  himself. 
No  one  can  give  law  to  another  in  this  respect ; 
no  one  can   prescribe   to  another  how  far  for 


THE  CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS  351 

love's  sake  he  shall  yield  his  own  liberty ;  least 
of  all  may  the  weak  brother  himself  have  a  voice 
in  the  decision. 

This  matter  of  the  weak  brother  has  been  very 
much  misunderstood.  In  deciding  what  is  right 
or  wrong  in  itself,  the  weak  brother  cannot  be 
considered  at  all.  This  is  a  question  purely  of 
truth  and  right  reason.  To  declare  obligatory, 
out  of  regard  for  the  weak  brother,  something 
which  is  not  obligatory,  is  false  and  dangerous. 
It  makes  ignorance  and  prejudice  and  weakness, 
rather  than  the  truth  of  things,  the  ground  of 
legislation.  It  produces  an  artificial  and  fictitious 
code  which  is  sure  to  produce  revolt  when  it  is 
seen  through.  It  obscures  the  eternal  obligations 
of  justice  and  righteousness  by  petty  fussiness 
about  the  tithing  of  mint,  anise,  and  cummin. 
Now  this  is  undue  deference  to  the  weak  brother, 
and  must  never  be  allowed.  St.  Paul  would  not 
admit  that  an  idol  was  anything,  or  that  meats 
offered  to  idols  were  damaged  thereby,  or  that 
there  was  anything  unclean  in  itself.  He  would 
not  needlessly  offend,  but  he  would  not  conceal 
the  truth.  And  this  is  as  far  as  Christian  wisdom 
allows  us  to  go.  In  the  confusion  of  this  human 
world  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come,  but 
in  the  long  run  the  truth  is  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance and  of  fewest  offenses.  Weak  brethren 


352  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

abound  on  all  sides  of  every  question.  If  one  is 
offended  by  tbe  enlargement  of  liberty,  another 
is  offended  by  its  limitation.  Defect  is  as  danger- 
ous as  excess.  Only  the  truth  is  safe,  and  only 
the  truth  makes  free.  The  weak  brother,  then,  is 
not  to  be  considered  at  all  in  deciding  the  ques- 
tions of  essential  right  and  wrong ;  but  he  is  to 
be  taken  into  account  in  the  use  of  our  freedom. 
We  must  not  walk  uncharitably,  but  in  Christian 
wisdom  and  love.  But  the  weak  brother  himself 
may  never  prescribe  the  measure  of  consideration 
to  be  given  to  his  notions.  That  would  simply 
encourage  him  in  his  whims  and  make  him  a  still 
greater  nuisance.  He  needs  to  be  told  the  truth 
about  himself  now  and  then,  lest  he  remain  in 
error ;  and  the  truth  is  that  he  has  mistaken  his 
own  ignorant  notions  for  universal  principles; 
and  the  probability  is  that  he  has  confounded  his 
native  conceit  and  pugnacity  with  zeal  for  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

The  problems  are  indeterminate.  The  princi- 
ples given  show  the  spirit  in  which  we  should 
deal  with  them,  but  they  give  no  final  solution. 
The  application  must  be  made  by  each  for  him- 
self and  at  his  own  risk.  Each  stands  or  falls  to 
his  own  Master.  St.  Paul  himself  manifestly  felt 
the  impossibility  of  any  hard-and-fast  decision; 
and  he  leaves  the  matter  with  a  final  suggestion 


THE   CHURCH  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS    353 

designed  to  change  the  entire  point  of  view.  He 
says  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  eating  or  drink- 
ing, but  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  he  urges  his  readers  to  give  up 
haggHng  and  wrangling  about  eating  and  drink- 
ing and  fast  days,  and  make  the  glory  of  God  the 
principle  of  all  their  living.  All  things,  therefore, 
whatsoever  ye  do,  whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  do  all 
to  the  glory  of  God.  Thus  the  apostle  sought  to 
bring  them  to  an  insight  into  the  spiritual  nature 
of  obedience,  which  should  vacate  their  discus- 
sions by  revealing  a  higher  principle.  God  looketh 
at  the  heart.  He  takes  account  only  of  that ;  and 
if  that  be  right,  he  accepts  or  overlooks  all  the 
rest.  A  life  of  scruples  is  always  weak ;  and  there 
is  no  end  to  them,  if  we  allow  them  to  begin. 
Scruples  beget  scruples  and  grow  upon  scruples 
until  the  moral  life  itself  is  lost  in  a  Pharisaic 
casuistry  to  which  there  is  no  end.  The  only  rem- 
edy is  to  reject  this  method  of  mechanical  rule 
and  scruple  altogether,  and  simply  seek  to  live  in 
the  love  of  God  and  man.  This  is  the  true  and 
only  law  of  Christian  living. 

To  covet  earnestly  the  best  things  for  men  is 
the  Church's  great  obligation.  Whatsoever  things 
are  just  and  true  and  lovely  and  gracious  and 
pure  and  helpful  are  to  be  secured  in  the  largest 
possible  measure.  Nothing  is  to  be  held  or  cher- 


354  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ished  because  it  is  old,  but  because  it  is  true  and 
helpful.  Nothing  is  to  be  held  because  it  is  new, 
but  because  it  is  true  and  helpful.  As  soon  as  a 
better  is  assuredly  in  sight,  the  old,  no  matter 
how  good,  must  go.  With  this  principle  firmly 
grasped  and  with  the  faith  that  this  is  God's 
world,  the  Church  would  take  its  place,  where  it 
really  belongs,  at  the  head  of  all  the  forces  in 
life  that  make  at  once  for  social  permanence  and 
social  progress. 


VI 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TEUTH 


VI 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH 

To  the  question,  What  is  the  relation  o£  the 
Church  to  the  truth?  one  might  reply  by  quoting 
the  text,  "  The  Church  of  the  Living  God,  the  pil- 
lar and  ground  of  the  truth."  And  then  another, 
with  some  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
might  be  led  to  inquire.  Is  this  so  ?  Possibly  the 
statement  might  be  maintained  for  old  and  ac- 
cepted truth,  but  what  of  new  truth  ?  St.  Stephen, 
addressing  some  orthodox  people  of  his  time,  said: 
"Ye  stiff-necked,  and  uncircumcised  in  heart  and 
ears,  ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost :  as  your 
fathers  did,  so  do  ye.  Which  of  the  prophets 
have  not  your  fathers  persecuted?  and  they  have 
slain  them  which  showed  before  of  the  coming  of 
the  Just  One;  of  whom  ye  have  been  now  the 
betrayers  and  murderers."  And  one  acquainted 
with  history  might  with  equal  truth  address  the 
Church,  considered  as  an  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, and  say:  Which  of  the  prophets  has  not  the 
Church  persecuted?  What  new  truth  is  there 
that  the  Church  has  not  opposed  ?  What  mental 
or  moral  or  social  or  political  progress  is  there 


358  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

that  the  Church  has  not  protested  against;  and 
what  tyranny  or  oppression  is  there  that  the 
Church  has  not  espoused  and  supported?  Con- 
sider the  present  relation  of  Greek  or  Roman  or- 
thodoxy to  human  progress,  political,  intellectual, 
or  religious.  Who  expects  to  find  either  of  these 
churches,  as  an  organization,  in  sympathy  with 
progressive  movements.  And  consider  also  the 
attitude  of  many  Protestant  bodies  to  those  larger 
ideas  which  advancing  thought  and  study  are  for- 
cing upon  us,  and  which  have  long  been  the  pro- 
perty of  educated  and  impartial  minds.  Whether 
in  government,  or  in  humanity,  or  in  morals,  or  in 
social  forms  and  religious  thinking,  the  most  bit- 
ter and  determined  enemy  of  progress  has  been 
the  ecclesiastical  organization.  About  this  there 
can  be  no  question.  The  facts  look  out  of  myriad 
pages  of  history  and  make  up  many  of  its  black- 
est infamies.  Are  they  not  written  in  the  books 
of  the  Chronicles  by  Buckle,  by  Draper,  by  Lecky, 
by  White,  and  many  another?  Clearly  in  the 
light  of  such  facts  we  cannot  call  the  Church  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  without  very  great 
limitations. 

This  question,  however,  cannot  be  discussed 
to  edification  by  partisan  defenses  or  by  hysteri- 
cal belaborings.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Church 
has  commonly  lagged  behind  the  intellect  of  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    359 

time  and  very  often  behind  the  progressive  con- 
science of  the  time ;  so  much  so  that  orthodoxy 
has  frequently  been  a  synonym  for  ignorance, 
dullness,  narrow-mindedness,  and  narrow-hearted- 
ness  generally.  The  intelligent  Christian  should 
know  this  fact,  and  he  should  also  know  how  it 
comes  to  be  a  fact,  so  that  he  may  finally  know 
how  to  deal  with  it  and  remove  the  scandal. 

The  fact  itself  is  the  outcome  of  various  causes 
which  are  deep-seated  in  the  order  of  our  human  life, 
and  which  produce  analogous  effects  in  otherfields 
as  well  as  in  religion.  This  we  now  proceed  to  show. 

The  human  world  is  an  evolving  one ;  and  in 
such  a  world  both  permanence  and  progress  are 
alike  necessary.  If  there  were  no  permanence  we 
should  have  simply  chaos,  and  if  there  were  no 
progress  we  should  be  confined  to  a  social  mo- 
notony which  would  be  destructive.  These  two 
elements  may  be  called  the  conservative  and  the 
progressive,  and  their  necessity  in  normal  society 
under  human  conditions  is  manifest. 

If  society  developed  normally  these  two  fac- 
tors would  go  side  by  side,  and  there  would  be 
no  friction.  Permanence  would  hold  fast  all  that 
is  good,  and  conserve  whatever  of  value  has  been 
gained  in  human  experience.  The  progressive 
element,  on  the  other  hand,  would  remember  that 


360  STUDIES  lY.    CHRISTIANITY 

the  permanent  element  merely  conserves  what- 
ever has  been  gained,  and  would  point  out  that 
in  changing  human  conditions  it  is  necessary  to 
adapt  society  to  those  conditions.  Thus  it  would 
seek  to  produce  the  adaptation,  and  keep  society 
adjusted  to  its  circumstances.  Unfortunately,  this 
is  seldom  the  case  in  actual  life.  We  have  an  ex- 
cess of  permanence  or  we  have  an  excess  of  the 
critical  and  progressive  element,  and  the  result 
is  that  human  development  is  very  often  accom- 
panied by  a  great  deal  of  friction.  Permanence 
becomes  monotony,  as  in  China;  or  progress 
becomes  lawlessness  and  anarchy,  as  not  infre- 
quently happens. 

Both  elements,  then,  tend  to  be  caricatured  in 
life.  We  find  in  society,  for  example,  vested  inter- 
ests becoming  indifferent  to  justice  and  human- 
ity, unwilling  to  make  any  progress  and  resisting 
it  with  all  their  might.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
find  wild  reformers  without  any  sense  of  social 
continuity,  and  unaware  of  the  complex  interests 
of  society,  who  suppose  that  anything  can  be 
brought  about  to  order  by  law.  Tennyson  thus 
describes  them,  — 

Men  loud  against  all  forms  of  power, 
Unfurnished  brows,  tempestuous  tongues, 
Expecting  all  things  in  an  hour, 
Brass  mouths  and  iron  lungs. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   361 

We  find  the  same  caricature  in  the  world  of 
thought.  It  is  evident  to  every  one  who  thinks, 
that  habit  takes  the  place  of  thought  with  the 
great  majority  of  people.  Of  course  this  must  be 
the  case  with  children.  They  live  necessarily  by 
the  community  intellect.  They  assent  to  the  ideas 
about  them.  Instead  of  understanding  them, 
they  rather  catch  them  by  a  sort  of  social  con- 
tagion. The  same  thing  is  true  to  a  large  extent 
of  persons  of  mature  growth.  They  also  live  by 
the  community  intellect.  They  are  averse  to  the 
labor  and  the  pain  of  thinking.  Indeed,  they  are 
unable  to  think.  Instinct  and  imitation,  fixed  in 
custom  and  habit,  are  the  only  safe  guide  in  this 
stage  of  development.  Another  source  of  mental 
inertia  is  self-interest.  A  new  thought  very  often 
demands  readjustment  of  life  and  conduct,  and 
cannot  be  admitted  without  bringing  far-reach- 
ing consequences  with  it.  All  such  thoughts  are 
sure  to  be  resisted.  Two  sorts  of  people  are  al- 
ways conservative.  The  crass  obstinacy  and  iner- 
tia of  stupidity  will  be  found  in  the  conservative 
camp  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  conservatism  of 
self-interest  is  equally  intelligible.  The  former 
is  impervious  to  new  ideas,  perhaps  congenitally; 
the  latter  adjusts  beliefs,  not  to  truth,  but  to  de- 
sired ends.  If  necessary,  new  ideas  can  always 
be  kept  out  in  one  way  or  another.  A  Hindoo, 


362  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

according  to  Macaulay,  was  once  setting  forth  the 
sin  of  destroying  animal  life  and  insisting  on  the 
duty  of  a  vegetable  diet.  Some  one  showed  him 
his  vegetable  diet  under  a  microscope,  but  the 
Hindoo  managed  the  matter,  not  by  changing 
his  diet,  but  by  smashing  the  microscope. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  progressive  element 
tends  to  draw  to  itself  various  undesirable  people, 
not  merely  those  who  are  seeking  for  new  truth, 
but  flighty  persons,  persons  who  insist  on  think- 
ing for  themselves  before  they  have  learned  to 
think  at  all.  And  thus  the  progressive  camp  tends 
to  become  a  sort  of  cave  of  Adullam.  It  would 
be  very  desirable  if  these  two  elements,  the  con- 
servative and  the  progressive,  could  be  united  in 
the  same  persons,  who  seek  at  once  to  prove  all 
things  and  to  hold  fast  all  that  is  good.  In  society 
they  would  recognize  the  things  of  permanent 
value  in  our  inheritance  from  the  past,  and  would 
conserve  them  with  all  energy,  but  they  would 
also  recognize  that  the  world  is  moving,  that  we 
are  entering  upon  new  social  conditions,  and  that 
the  social  order  must  be  adjusted  to  correspond. 
In  the  thought  world  the  same  persons  would 
recoofnize  that  the  thoufjhts  of  men  are  widened 
with  the  process  of  the  suns,  and  they  would  seek 
to  retain  the  truth  of  the  old  and  also  keep  their 
minds  open  for  new  truths  from  every  quarter. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    363 

If  this  were  done  Ave  should  then  liave  a  peaceful 
progress.  Instead  of  having  society  divided  into 
two  rather  hostile  camps,  we  should  have  the  two 
factors  of  permanence  and  progress  united,  and 
progress  would  be  by  evolution,  and  not  by  revo- 
lution. Or  it  would  proceed  by  organic  unfolding 
from  within,  instead  of  being  mechanically  im- 
posed from  without. 

Thus  in  the  nature  of  human  development  we 
find  provision  for  conservatism  in  the  instincts, 
habits,  imitation,  and  inertia  which  underlie  so- 
ciety. Without  these  society  could  never  begin, 
to  say  nothing  of  maintaining  itself.  Religion, 
too,  by  its  nature  tends  to  conservatism,  at  least 
in  its  earlier  stages.  Indeed,  that  fixity  of  custom 
which  was  the  first  condition  of  emerging  from 
savagery  seems  to  have  been  primarily  of  a  reli- 
gious nature.  The  safety  of  the  tribe  and  its  suc- 
cess in  any  of  its  enterprises  were  bound  up  with 
a  species  of  religious  orthodoxy  ;  and  the  tribe 
had  to  defend  this  orthodoxy  at  all  hazards.  In 
more  developed  times  religion  becomes  more 
wisely  conservative,  but  remains  conservative  still. 
The  consciousness  of  having  truths  of  supreme 
importance  makes  religion  jealous  of  any  de- 
parture from  them  in  the  realm  of  thought,  and 
equally  opposed  to  attacks  on  the  social  order. 
Hence  the  enemies  of  society  have  commonly 


364  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

found  in  the  Church  one  of  their  most  deter- 
mined opponents.  It  is  not  until  a  high  degree 
of  intellectual  and  moral  development  has  been 
reached  that  the  Church  becomes  a  factor  of 
progress  as  well  as  one  of  permanence.  In  the 
religious  history  of  the  race,  religion  has  com- 
monly been  opposed  to  progress. 

Conservatism,  we  have  seen,  is  rooted  in  human 
nature;  it  becomes  still  more  deeply  rooted  in 
institutions.  Our  native  conservatism  does  not 
reach  its  full  strength  until  it  has  embodied  it- 
self in  institutions.  These  abide,  and  by  their 
continued  presence  give  law  to  life  and  thought. 
The  institution  by  its  very  nature  is  conservative, 
and  equally  so  are  the  managers.  All  rulers  and 
administrators  have  a  natural  interest  in  main- 
taining the  existing  order.  They  are  used  to  it ; 
they  know  how  to  work  it.  Besides,  they  often 
have  an  inside  knowledge  which  the  outsider 
lacks,  and  they  see  there  are  more  things  to  be 
considered  than  the  newspaper  critic  suspects. 
This  broader  knowledge  and  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility tend  to  conservatism.  It  is  often  remarked 
that  Lord  Morley,  who,  as  John  Morley,  wrote 
a  book  denouncing  "  Compromise,"  has  become 
notably  considerate  since  he  became  Secretary  for 
India  and  a  member  of  the  Upper  House.  But 
in  any  case  "  fear  of  change  perplexes  monarchs," 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    365 

large  and  small.  They  lie  snug  and  safe  in  the 
harbor,  and  dread  the  risks  of  the  open  and  un- 
known sea.  They  resent  change  and  dread  it. 
They  are  full  of  old  saws  about  "  bearing  the 
ills  we  have  "  rather  than  "  flying  to  others  that 
we  know  not  of."  And  these  considerations  apply 
to  religious  institutions  and  organizations  as  well 
as  to  political  and  social  ones.  And  thus  arises 
a  new  danger  to  the  truth.  The  single  eye,  with- 
out which  there  is  no  light,  is  often  replaced  by 
the  evil  eye,  and  then  the  whole  body  is  full  of 
darkness. 

This  fact  is  abundantly  illustrated  in  religious 
institutions.  Custom,  rite,  tradition,  all  organize 
in  the  religious  community  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  any  departure  from  them  easily  appears  as 
irreligious  and  destructive.  Then,  again,  there  is 
a  tendency  in  all  organizations  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  men  of  a  certain  type,  and  to  be  warped 
from  their  essential  aim  and  nature  by  various 
subordinate  factors.  Thus  political  parties  tend 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  bosses,  and  government 
tends  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  inferior  men,  and 
in  all  organizations  a  certain  poor  type  of  man 
often  comes  to  the  front.  The  same  is  seen  in 
ecclesiastical  organizations  when  they  become  at 
all  extended.  Men  of  mediocre  intellect  and  sub- 
mediocre  character,  but  having  a  certain  man- 


366  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ao-ing  quality  and  a  considerable  regard  for  the 
loaves  and  fishes,  become  unpleasantly  promi- 
nent. It  is  not  easy  in  any  such  body  to  put 
the  best  men  in  power,  men  of  the  highest  in- 
tellect and  highest  character.  Such  men  com- 
monly have  opinions  and  principles,  and  therefore 
are  not  the  most  pliable  people,  and  are  often 
distasteful  to  persons  of  quality,  especially  of  op- 
posite quality.  And  when  the  inferior  men  are 
brouo:ht  to  the  front,  then  lower  interests  become 
prominent.  The  financial  aspects  of  religion  are 
brought  forward  and  emphasized.  The  value  of 
place  likewise  becomes  significant,  and  we  tend 
to  have  men  in  prominence  who  have  very  little 
interest  in  the  truth  as  such,  but  rather  in  main- 
taining the  present  order,  in  securing  position 
and  the  perquisites  of  religious  place.  In  the  old 
temple  an  authority  on  the  subject  declared  that 
this  had  resulted  in  changing  the  house  of  prayer 
into  a  den  of  thieves.  The  money-changers  and 
the  sellers  of  doves  and  the  makers  of  shrines  for 
the  temple  were  unpleasantly  prominent  in  the 
old  days,  and  their  descendants  are  still  with  us. 
Even  these  people  have  their  place  and  function, 
but  they  are  not  fit  to  be  rulers  in  the  temple. 
St.  Demetrius,  who  knew  that  "  by  this  craft  we 
have  our  wealth,"  is  their  patron  saint.  Such  per- 
sons are  always  thoroughly  orthodox.  They  have 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    367 

no  interest  in  the  truth,  but  they  have  an  inter- 
est in  the  organization,  and  in  what  can  be  made 
out  of  it.  And  hence  they  are  averse  to  change 
and  they  will  resist  change,  even  if  it  be  progress, 
by  all  the  means  in  their  power.  So  it  has  been, 
so  it  is,  and  so  it  will  be  until  human  nature  has 
very  much  improved.  And  this  is  a  fact  which 
we  need  always  to  bear  in  mind  when  we  seek  to 
combine  religious  progress  with  religious  perma- 
nence. We  must  observe  that  the  organization 
itself,  unless  we  carefully  guard  it,  tends  to  be- 
come an  enemy  of  the  truth.  Obsolete  traditions, 
worn-out  notions,  antiquated  customs,  are  ele- 
vated into  things  of  eternal  obligation,  and  change 
is  resisted  either  from  what  we  have  called  the 
crass  obstinacy  of  ignorance,  or  else  from  the 
interested  obstinacy  of  self-seekers.  This  is  es- 
pecially the  case  with  state  churches  and  with 
all  great  ecclesiastical  organizations.  One  cannot 
follow  the  present  ecclesiastical  war  against  mod- 
ernism without  perceiving  that  much  more  than 
the  simple  love  for  the  truth  is  in  play  and  in 
evidence. 

This  study  of  the  natural  history  of  conserva- 
tism shows  that  the  problem  of  conservatism  and 
progress  is  not  a  simple  one.  Both  elements  are 
important  and  both  are  justified  ;  but  in  the  con- 
fusion and  complexity  of  human  life  both  are 


368  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

often  allied  with  unworthy  agencies  that  discredit 
them.  It  is,  then,  the  problem  for  the  wise  man 
to  hold  fast  all  that  is  good,  and  at  the  same  time 
keep  an  open  mind  for  all  new  truth  or  needed 
change.  He  must  be  able  to  read  history,  and 
he  must  also  be  able  to  discern  the  signs  of  the 
times.  He  must  look  both  before  and  after.  A 
man  with  eyes  only  in  the  back  of  his  head  will 
certainly  make  a  poor  guide ;  and  a  man  who 
ignores  the  past  will  be  no  better.  The  problem, 
then,  is  complex,  and  there  will  always  be  a  point 
where  discussion  is  going  on  and  where  there 
will  be  a  division  of  opinion  until  events  have 
clearly  declared  themselves. 

The  great  instrument  of  progress  in  all  fields 
is  discussion  and  criticism.  Society  roots  back  in 
human  instincts  and  impulses,  which  of  them- 
selves set  us  going  and  give  life  a  certain  form 
on  their  own  account.  We  could  not  dispense 
with  these,  but  they  never  make  anything  perfect. 
Man's  instinctive  life  and  its  habits  and  products 
all  need  revision  by  intelligence  before  they  can 
be  finally  approved.  This  is  true  alike  of  the 
physical,  the  mental,  the  social,  and  the  politi- 
cal life  of  man.  There  must  be  testing  criticism 
and  discussion  of  the  past,  in  order  to  see  what 
is  to  be  kept  and  what  is  to  be  improved  or  set 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   369 

aside.  The  present  is  preeminently  a  period  of 
this  kind.  At  last  we  are  beginning  to  take  an 
inventory  of  our  inheritance,  with  the  aim  of 
rationally  appraising  it.  We  are  beginning  to  ap- 
ply intellect  to  the  problems  of  life  and  society 
more  systematically  and  comprehensively  than 
ever  before.  The  laws  of  health  are  being  studied 
and  applied ;  the  problems  of  disease  are  being 
attacked  with  unprecedented  vigor ;  social  and 
economic  laws  are  being  investigated  with  unex- 
ampled precision ;  and  the  social  order  itself  is 
subjected  to  thorough  scrutiny.  Of  course  this 
critical  activity  extends  to  religion  also,  in  all  its 
forms  and  doctrines.  This  movement,  of  course, 
will  meet  with  ignorant  and  interested  opposition, 
but  nothing  but  good  can  come  of  it,  if  it  is  con- 
ducted in  the  right  spirit.  Knowledge  will  be 
enlarged,  old  diseases  will  be  driven  away,  social 
injustice  will  be  diminished,  beclouding  super- 
stitions will  disappear,  and  life  will  become  broad 
and  sane  and  joyous. 

But  here  we  are  met  by  the  fancy  that  the 
Christian  religion  at  least  is  not  subject  to  this 
critical  movement  or  law  of  progress.  In  the 
Bible  we  have  the  truth  once  for  all  delivered 
unto  the  saints  ;  and  thus  the  truth  becomes  a 
constant  quantity,  with  no  variableness  or  shadow 
of  turning.  Macaulay  once  said,  mischievously 


370  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

or  otherwise,  "  Theology  is  not  a  progressive 
science  " ;  and  certainly  a  great  many  could  be 
found  to  agree  with  him  for  the  reason  just  given. 
This,  however,  is  purely  a  product  of  closet 
thinking,  as  a  look  into  Christian  history  shows. 
There  is  a  certain  constancy  or  continuity  in 
Christian  thought,  and  there  is  also  a  great  deal 
of  change.  Provision  is  made  for  this  fact  in  the 
distinction  between  a  doctrine  and  the  mode  of 
conceiving  it.  In  some  sense  Christian  doctrines 
remain  what  they  always  have  been,  and  we  can 
find  the  fundamentals  of  the  faith  in  the  earliest 
creeds.  But  in  some  other  sense  we  find  our 
modes  of  conceiving  these  doctrines  exceedingly 
various.  Thus  no  one  would  conceive  the  divine 
sovereignty  to-day  as  was  done  two  centuries  ago. 
Similarly,  the  doctrines  of  inspiration,  atonement, 
moral  retribution,  are  very  differently  conceived 
now  from  what  they  were  then.  It  is  in  this  way 
that  provision  is  made  for  combining  fixed  doc- 
trines with  a  changing  world.  The  doctrines  re- 
main the  same,  sometimes  the  words  remain  the 
same,  but  the  conceptions  vary  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another,  from  one  person  to  another,  and 
even  from  one  stag-e  to  another  in  the  life  of  the 
same  person.  The  contents  we  put  into  a  doctrine, 
or  our  way  of  thinking  of  it,  necessarily  vary  w^ith 
our  own  mental  and  moral  development.    In  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    371 

very  nature  of  the  case  this  cannot  be  escaped. 
An  old  scholastic  maxim  has  it,  "  Whatever  is 
received,  is  received  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
receiver."  Which  means  simply  that  our  under- 
standing of  things  depends  upon  our  mental  make 
and  mental  stage.  We  have  had  the  Bible  with  us 
now  for  many  hundreds  of  years,  but  there  has 
been  a  most  distressing  slowness  in  understanding 
it.  Its  spiritual  doctrines  have  been  warped  and 
distorted  into  some  likeness  of  the  student,  and 
manifestly  the  fact  could  not  be  otherwise.  A 
glance  at  the  history  of  interpretation  shows  how 
men  have  read  their  own  notions  into  the  Bible. 
It  is  plain,  then,  that  the  possession  of  the  Bible  in 
no  way  removes  the  fact  that  this  is  a  changing 
world  in  religious  thought  as  well  as  in  other 
thinofs. 

We  have  before  pointed  out,  what  every  edu- 
cated person  knows,  that  the  Church  very  fre- 
quently falls  behind  the  intellect  of  the  educated 
community  and  appears  as  an  enemy  of  truth,  or 
as  something  reactionary  and  hostile  to  know- 
ledge. If  the  Church  could  have  had  its  way, 
modern  civilization  would  never  have  developed, 
and  humanity  would  have  been  ruined.  We  should 
have  been  living  in  filth  and  squalor  and  super- 
stition and  intellectual  abjectness  of  every  kind. 
The  Church  saves  the  world  ;  and  the  world  saves 


372  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

the  Church.  Only  the  instinctive  and  irresistible 
impulse  of  human  nature,  whereby  it  has  vindi- 
cated its  own  rights,  has  saved  humanity  from 
destruction  by  religion.  This  intellectual  back- 
wardness of  the  Church  is  nothinsf  less  than  a 
calamity  to  religion,  because  it  begets  and  con- 
tinues the  notion  that  religion  is  essentially  a 
thing  of  inferior  intellect,  and  that  it  is  afraid 
to  come  out  into  the  open  field  of  the  world 
where  plain  secular  daylight  shines,  and  be  tested. 
This  notion  is  something  seriously  to  be  deplored. 
It  tends  to  produce  a  separation  between  the  edu- 
cated intellect  and  the  religious  world,  which  is 
of  damage  to  both. 

So  far  as  conservatism  rests  on  ignorance  and 
selfish  interests,  this  intellectual  scandal  cannot 
be  speedily  removed ;  but  so  far  as  it  has  a  gen- 
uine rational  root  and  interest,  much  could  be 
done  toward  the  removal  of  the  scandal  by  sim- 
plifying Christian  teaching.  We  should  reduce 
the  fundamental  Christian  doctrines  to  a  state- 
ment of  what  we  conceive  the  essential  Christian 
facts  to  be,  and  should  distinguish  these,  as  facts 
to  be  proclaimed,  from  the  various  conceptions 
or  theories  of  these  facts,  which  make  up  the 
bulk  of  so-called  doctrine.  Such  statement  might 
run  somewhat  as  follows:  I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  Son 


THE  CHUECH  AND  THE  TRUTH   373 

our  Lord.  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  in  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth, 
and  in  the  life  everlasting.  Let  this  be  the  Chris- 
tian platform ;  and  for  our  programme  let  that 
run.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  It  is  perfectly  plain  that 
this  platform  contains  in  principle  all  that  is  es- 
sential to  Christianity ;  and  that  all  who  stand  on 
this  platform  and  work  for  this  programme  are 
in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word  Christians.  It  is 
equally  plain  that  this  platform  would  command, 
with  scantiest  exception,  the  assent  of  all  the 
churches.*  This  is  the  true  continuity  of  Christian 
thought,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever. 
This  is  the  true  faith  received  everywhere  and 
by  all.  This  is  the  true  orthodoxy,  and  the  only 
thing  that  should  be  called  orthodoxy.  All  else 
is  theology,  perhaps  good,  but  in  any  case  rela- 
tively unimportant,  and  in  most  cases  absolutely 
unimportant.  For  the  victories  of  Christianity 
have  been  and  always  will  be  won  on  this  plat- 
form. It  is  by  these  mighty  conceptions  that  we 
triumph ;  and  it  is  by  bringing  them  into  the 

*  This  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  no  other  churches  are  Chris- 
tian, but  only  that  all  churches  that  stand  on  this  platform  are 
in  the  most  orthodox  sense  Christian.  When  it  comes  to  practi- 
cal Christianity,  the  essential  thing  is  not  naming  the  name,  but 
doing  the  will;  and  when  it  is  a  question  of  membership  in  the 
kingdom,  nothing  is  decisive  but  the  affinities  of  the  spirit. 


374  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

minds  and  lives  of  men  that  we  spread  the  gos- 
pel, the  good  news  of  God.  And  against  the 
Christian  programme  there  can  be  equally  no  ob- 
jection. The  aim  is  not  to  build  up  an  ecclesias- 
tical hierarchy,  or  a  churchly  domination,  but  to 
do  God  's  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 
Against  this  there  is  no  law  and  no  opposition, 
except  from  the  selfish  side  of  our  nature.  This 
programme  commands  the  assent  of  every  lover 
of  men  in  the  Church  or  out  of  it.  It  has  been 
the  dream  of  every  good  man  from  the  begin- 
ning and  is  the  dream  of  every  good  man  to-day. 
Finally,  it  is  clear  that  no  one  standing  on  this 
platform  and  working  on  this  programme  will 
ever  get  far  or  dangerously  astray.  Here  the 
pragmatic  test  comes  in  with  decisive  effect.  The 
vital  interest  in  the  kingdom  of  God  will  perpet- 
ually generate  right  practical  thinking.  A  church 
with  no  other  theology  and  programme,  if  it  were 
vitally  interested  in  this,  would  not  fail  to  give 
a  good  account  of  itself  as  a  church  of  Christ. 

This  is  the  true  Christian  orthodoxy,  the  thing 
on  which  the  Church  must  insist  as  the  condition 
of  its  existence.  Historically,  however,  orthodoxy 
has  been  of  another  sort.  It  arises  in  this  way: 
There  is  a  natural  desire  to  formulate  Christian 
doctrine  so  as  to  show  its  philosophy.  We  seek 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   375 

to  pass  from  the  revealed  facts  of  God's  grace  to 
a  theory  ahout  them;  and  this  theory  becomes 
the  orthodox  one.  Of  course  this  formulation 
must  take  place  in  accordance  with  the  reigning 
philosophy  of  the  time;  and  when  the  progress 
of  thought  displaces  the  philosophy  there  is  a 
conflict  of  reason  and  faith.  Again,  the  Christian 
facts  cannot  lie  in  the  mind  unrelated  to  all  its 
other  beliefs,  but  is  spontaneously  adjusted  to 
them.  Thus  it  becomes  complicated  with  the 
science  of  the  time;  and  when  the  science  pro- 
gresses we  have  a  conflict  of  science  and  religion. 
Further,  Christianity  tends  to  adjust  itself  to 
existing  social  customs,  and  views  any  departure 
from  them  as  dangerous  and  irreligious.  Then 
when  society  progresses  the  Church  is  left  be- 
hind, vainly  protesting  against  the  "spirit  of  the 
times"  as  the  "spirit  of  Antichrist,"  itself  ap- 
pearing meanwhile  as  the  foe  of  humanity.  In 
this  way  the  various  orthodoxies  arise ;  and  we 
have  an  orthodox  philosophy,  an  orthodox  astron- 
omy, an  orthodox  geology,  an  orthodox  medicine, 
an  orthodox  political  economy,  and  an  orthodox 
politics.  These  are  mainly  obsolete  phases  of 
thoujjht  once  current,  to  which  Christian  thou2"ht 
attached  itself,  but  which  now  are  outgrown  and 
impossible.  And  Christian  thought  finds  itself 
greatly  enlarged  and  liberated  when  it  avails  itself 


376  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

of  the  larger  intellectual  conceptions.  Who  would 
now  think  of  going  back  to  ancient  geology,  or 
astronomy,  or  physics,  or  medicine,  or  chrono- 
logy, or  economics  as  aids  to  faith?  The  only 
possible  reason  any  one  could  find  for  such  a 
notion  would  lie  in  the  belief  in  the  verbal  infal- 
libility of  the  Bible;  and  this  belief  has  largely 
disappeared  as  unnecessary  and  groundless. 

Thus  we  see  how  the  false  orthodoxies  arise 
and  what  they  are.  There  are  some  of  hierarchi- 
cal origin,  but  these  we  have  no  call  to  consider. 
Generally  the  false  orthodoxies  do  not  touch  the 
essential  Christian  faith,  but  are  interpretations 
of  that  faith  in  the  imperfect  thought  of  their 
time.  In  the  nature  of  the  case  they  lie  in  the 
realm  of  opinion  rather  than  of  faith ;  and, 
equally  in  the  nature  of  the  case  they  are  sub- 
ject to  change  with  the  growth  of  thought  and 
experience.  From  the  mode  of  their  origin  it 
follows  that  the  most  ignorant  will  always  be  the 
most  orthodox  in  this  sense.  Having  themselves 
little  knowledge  and  no  intellectual  interest,  they 
will  desire  to  "stand  in  the  old  paths,"  that  is, 
the  old  formulas,  or,  still  more  accurately,  the 
old  phrases.  All  that  is  needed  for  this  is  a  com- 
petent and  active  ignorance  and  a  belligerent 
conceit.  With  this  furnishing,  they  read  out  to 
their  own  satisfaction  all  modern  science,  mod- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   377 

ern  history,  modern  sociology,  modern  political 
economy,  and  modern  thought  in  general ;  and 
know  not  meanwhile  that  they  are  poor  and 
miserable  and  blind  and  naked,  and  know  no- 
thing as  they  ought  to  know  it.  This  has  been  so 
largely  the  character  of  self-styled  orthodoxy, 
that  one  might  almost  have  ground  for  a  suit 
for  slander  or  libel  at  being  called  orthodox. 

Now  the  way  out  of  this  scandal  lies  in  distin- 
guishing the  true  orthodoxy  of  the  essential  Chris- 
tian facts  from  this  orthodoxy  of  opinion  and 
interpretation.  At  its  best  it  is  only  an  attempt 
to  theorize  on  Christian  doctrine,  and  might  be 
exchanged  for  a  Christian  agnosticism  with  no 
loss  whatever  in  many  cases.  Essential  Christian 
teaching  is  independent  of  any  or  all  of  these 
orthodoxies,  and  they  commonly  only  serve  to 
obscure  the  good  news  of  God.  We  can  believe 
in  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
without  going  into  the  metaphysics  of  the  Trin- 
ity, and  even  while  renouncing  such  metaphysics 
as  beyond  us.  We  can  thus  believe  without  say- 
ing, "  Theology  teaches  that  there  are  in  God  one 
Essence,  two  Processions,  three  Persons,  four 
Kelations,  five  Notions,  and  the  Circumin cession 
which  the  Greeks  call  Perichoresis."  We  can  be- 
lieve in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  without  going 
into  the  "  theories  of  salvation,"  or  the  "  order 


378  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

of  salvation"  under  theological  guidance.  There 
has  been  a  deal  of  theology  of  this  kind  which 
was  worthless  even  in  its  own  field,  and  which 
constituted  one  of  the  worst  aberrations  of  Chris- 
tian thought ;  but  we  are  getting  clear  of  it.  It 
is  only  a  few  years  since  a  theological  professor 
was  complained  of  for  getting  the  "  order  of  sal- 
vation "  wrong,  but  we  are  coming  to  see  that  if 
we  secure  salvation  the  "order"  will  take  care 
of  itself.  Many  of  these  orthodoxies  are  so  petty 
that  they  could  by  no  possibility  begin  to-day 
but,  being  here,  they  are  maintained  only  by 
force  of  custom. 

There  will  always  be  need  of  theology,  but  its 
field  will  be  very  much  restricted  in  the  future. 
The  elaborate  deductive  constructions  of  the  past 
will  be  abandoned  as  outrunning  our  data  and  our 
knowledge,  if  not  our  faculties.  But  the  theologian 
will  always  have  the  function  of  formulating  our 
Christian  ideas  and  adjusting  them  to  the  current 
stage  of  thought  and  knowledge.  In  this  way  our 
ideas  will  fit  harmoniously  into  the  existing  intel- 
lectual and  social  order,  and  will  have  their  proper 
influence.  But  the  results  thus  reached  are  never 
to  be  stiffened  into  an  orthodoxy  "  which  if  any 
man  hold  not  he  shall  without  doubt  perish  ever- 
lastingly," or  made  into  an  "  article  of  the  standing 
or  falling  of  the  faith."  These  results  are  relative 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   379 

to  conditions.  They  have  varied  greatly  in  the 
past;  they  will  vary  greatly  in  the  future.  In  few, 
if  any,  departments  of  theology  has  finality  of 
conception  been  reached.  For  instance,  the  prob- 
lem of  eschatology  has  hardly  been  rationalized 
or  moralized  at  all,  and  awaits  its  adequate  dis- 
cussion. This,  however,  does  not  mean  that  every- 
thing is  at  sea,  or  even  that  anything  of  much 
importance  is  at  sea;  for  still  and  all  the  while  the 
Church  believes  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  in 
the  Son,  our  Lord,  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  and  the  life  everlasting;  and  this 
is  all  that  is  essential  for  faith  or  practice. 

Still  there  is  an  important  field  for  the  theo- 
loofian.  The  realization  of  Christian  ideas  in  life 
belongs  to  the  individual  disciple  and  the  Chris- 
tian community  ;  their  formulation  and  system- 
atic presentation  belong  to  the  Christian  scholar 
and  thinker.  And  these  ideas  cannot  have  their 
full  effect  until  this  work  is  done ;  and  because 
of  the  progressive  order  of  life  and  thought  this 
work  will  wait  long  for  its  completion.  Know- 
ledge is  growing,  human  nature  itself  is  develop- 
ing, society  is  unfolding,  experience  is  enlarging; 
and  our  religious  conceptions  must  change  to 
correspond.  Hence  there  should  be  in  every 
church  a  large  place  for  freedom  of  thought 
within  the  limits  of  what  I  have  called  true  or 


380  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

essential  orthodoxy,  for  it  is  only  by  free  discus- 
sion that  we  can  advance  to  new  truth.  It  is  now 
plain  to  every  one  that  truth  is  not  given  all  at 
once,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  cannot  be, 
but  is  slowly  developed  through  long  processes 
of  thinking  as  experience  accumulates  and  know- 
ledge advances.  Every  church,  therefore,  needs 
to  be  very  hospitable  to  new  truth  from  what- 
ever quarter  it  may  come,  whether  from  science 
and  from  advancing  history  or  from  the  criticism 
of  history,  secular  and  religious,  or  from  the  de- 
veloping moral  nature  and  insight  of  the  reli- 
gious community.  Of  course  if  any  church  is 
founded  on  some  petty  whim  or  prejudice,  or  if 
any  church  has  staked  its  authority  on  obsolete 
science  or  disproved  history,  such  church  must 
object  to  freedom  of  thought,  with  the  sure  re- 
sult that  sooner  or  later  it  will  be  abandoned  of 
God  and  man,  unless  it  bring  forth  fruits  meet 
for  repentance.  But  all  other  churches,  if  they 
have  faith  in  God,  must  also  have  faith  that  truth 
will  do  no  harm  and  cannot  itself  be  finally 
harmed.  As  Lowell  has  it,  "  God's  universe  is 
fire-proof  and  it  is  safe  to  strike  a  match." 

Probably  all  of  the  larger  Protestant  bodies 
would  in  a  way  assent  to  this,  but  none  of  them 
is  fully  awake  to  its  duty  to  the  truth.  The  great 
body  of  church  members  have  little  real  intellec- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   381 

tual  interest,  just  as  the  mass  of  men  have  little 
intellectual  interest.  Even  the  leaders  are  mainly 
taken  up  with  the  multitudinous  routine  of  the 
religious  community,  and  this  bulks  so  large  as  to 
exclude  all  thought  of  anything  else.  The  minis- 
ter has  his  two  sermons  a  week  and  the  mid-week 
service.  Then  there  are  the  funerals,  the  finances, 
the  church  organizations,  the  public  demands,  — 
what  time  has  any  one  to  think  in  such  a  whirl 
as  this?  Or  the  minister  may  be  busy  with  more 
spiritual  interests.  He  has  an  institutional  church, 
or  is  managing  a  rescue  league,  or  organizing  a 
social  reform  movement ;  and  then  the  questions 
of  the  troubled  intellect  seem  almost  impertinent, 
if  not  unintelligible.  Any  one,  then,  who  finds 
fault  with  received  and  traditional  formulas  is 
likely  to  be  a  troubler  of  Israel,  and  we  have  no 
time  to  attend  to  him  in  any  case.  All  this  is 
true  for  a  time  but  not  forever.  The  still  small 
voice  of  intelligence  will  at  last  be  heard ;  and 
the  gates  of  popes  and  bishops  and  general  as- 
semblies and  general  conferences  shall  not  prevail 
against  it.  At  last  the  outraged  intellect  and 
conscience  revolt  against  religion  itself ;  and  then 
it  is  seen  that  there  are  questions  perhaps  even 
more  important  than  who  shall  be  made  bishop, 
or  when  the  Sunday-school  picnic  shall  be  held. 
Fiddling  while  Rome  is  burning  is  rational  and 


382  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

praiseworthy  in  comparison  with  this  dull  indif- 
ference, while  the  intellect  of  a  nation  is  being 
alienated  from  the  Church  and  from  religion. 

Questions  of  scholarship  can  be  settled  only  by 
scholarship.  Questions  of  fact  can  be  settled  only 
by  evidence.  The  very  notion  of  deciding  them 
by  authority  is  absurd.  How  many  papal  bulls, 
or  how  big  an  ecclesiastical  club,  or  how  large 
a  majority  of  ignorant  votes  would  be  needed  to 
overturn  the  Copernican  astronomy?  Ignorance, 
in  high  or  low  places,  is  entitled  to  no  opinion 
on  these  matters.  Authority  only  makes  itself 
ridiculous  when  it  assumes  to  dictate.  Majorities 
are  equally  absurd,  unless  they  rest  on  the  facts 
and  the  evidence. 

The  Church,  then,  has  need  of  a  body  of  schol- 
arly investigators  to  do  its  intellectual  work.  They 
will  have  the  function  of  formulating  the  spirit- 
ual life  so  as  best  to  express  it  and  keep  it  from 
losing  its  way  in  swamps  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition. They  will  also  have  to  adjust  religious 
thought  to  the  ever-advancing  thought  of  culti- 
vated intelligence  so  as  to  remove  needless  mis- 
understanding. The  rank  and  file  of  the  Church, 
or  even  of  the  ministry,  cannot  be  expected  to  do 
this  or  even  to  be  deeply  interested  in  this  work. 
Most  of  them  lack  the  ability,  more  of  them 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   383 

lack  the  time.  They  may  make  good  day-laborers 
in  the  Church,  but  they  never  can  be  master  build- 
ers. As  in  science  and  general  scholarship  they 
must  depend  on  others  to  guide  them,  so  in  the- 
ological and  biblical  scholarship  they  must  de- 
pend on  others  for  leadership  and  guidance.  This 
most  obvious  fact  makes  it  the  duty  of  the 
scholar  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth  in  all  proper 
ways.  He  must  resist  the  conservatism  of  bigotry 
and  enlighten  its  bUndness,  and  never  permit  the 
religious  life  of  the  Church  to  be  crippled  and 
thwarted  by  outgrown  formulas,  no  matter  who 
utters  them. 

The  same  fact  makes  it  important  that  the 
nominal  leaders  of  the  Church  shall  also  be  lead- 
ers in  the  intellectual  world,  or  at  least  be  aware 
of  what  is  going  on  in  that  world,  so  as  not  to 
put  themselves  continually  in  the  wrong.  When 
the  Copernican  astronomy  is  everywhere  received 
in  the  educated  world,  it  is  not  wise  or  safe  for 
the  Church  to  be  teaching  the  Ptolemaic  doctrine. 
In  the  midst  of  twentieth-century  physics  it  is 
not  well  for  the  Church  to  be  teaching  physics 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Simply  as  a  piece  of 
policy,  one  could  hardly  imagine  anything  more 
futile  and  fatuous  than  that.  In  the  presence  of 
modern  medicine  the  Church  must  not  repeat  its 
old  theory  about  demoniacal  possession.  And  now 


384  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

that  the  facts  of  hypnotism  and  suggestion  are 
common  property,  the  Church  must  not  bring  out 
its  ancient  doctrine  of  witchcraft.  It  is  nothing 
less  than  pathetic  to  find  persons  harping  away 
on  obsolete  knowledge  in  the  idea  that  thereby 
the  ark  can  be  saved.  They  only  do  mischief 
and  imperil  the  ark,  which,  if  it  be  the  real  ark, 
must  be  able  to  stand  alone. 

And  here,  too,  we  are  by  no  means  out  of  the 
woods  yet  in  this  matter.  It  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  nominal  leaders  in  our  church  organizations 
who  have  failed  to  keep  up  with  the  times,  and  who 
seek  to  cover  up  their  ignorance  by  authority,  or 
by  assumption,  or  by  the  various  forms  of  eccle- 
siastical imposition  which  are  so  familiar  to  the 
student  of  ecclesiastical  history.  What  shall  we 
say  of  a  bishop  in  these  days  who  addresses  a 
conference  of  young  men  thus:  "I  beg  you,  I 
beseech  you,  not  to  read  any  works  on  evolution 
or  higher  criticism ;  but  live  and  die  in  the  faith 
of  your  mothers.  And  if  it  be  said  that  then  you 
will  die  in  ignorance,  be  it  so,  and  praise  God 
for  an  ignorance  that  will  give  you  peace."  This 
is  simply  a  recurrence  of  the  dear  old  doctrine 
that  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion.  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  a  body  of  bishops  that  can 
issue  pastoral  letters  in  one  of  which  the  doc- 
trines of  the  virgin  birth  and  the  infallibility 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   385 

of  Scripture  are  declared  to  be  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity,  and  in  another  of  which 
all  those  who  do  not  accept  the  traditional  teach- 
ings of  the  Church  are  commanded  to  keep  silent 
or  depart?  Clearly  we  have  here  an  outbreak  of 
mediaeval  ignorance  and  not  a  worthy  utterance 
of  people  who  know  what  is  going  on  in  the  in- 
tellectual world  to-day.  Such  persons  are  the 
worst  enemies  of  the  faith.  While  claiming  to  be 
its  defenders,  they  really  betray  it  in  the  house 
of  its  friends,  and  show  absolute  blindness  to  the 
intellectual  conditions  and  needs  of  our  time. 

Now  with  respect  to  the  first  doctrine  which  is 
mentioned,  I  have,  myself,  no  difficulty.  So  far  as 
I  know  I  believe  it.  I  certainly  do  not  deny  it, 
and  I  am  in  no  way  embarrassed  by  it.  At  the 
same  time  I  should  strongly  protest  against  mak- 
ing it  an  article  of  the  standing  or  falling  of  the 
faith  of  the  Church.  Manifestly  it  is  a  doctrine 
which  can  be  received  only  by  faith,  and  can 
never  be  put  to  any  decisive  test.  I  think  in  all 
probability  that  those  who  accept  Christianity 
as  a  revelation  of  God  will  generally  accept  this 
doctrine ;  and  it  will  be  held  because  of  its 
beauty  and  aesthetic  fitness  as  inaugurating  a 
new  era  in  the  great  order  of  divine  revelation. 
But  at  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  there  are 
considerable  difficulties  on  the  face  of  the  nar- 


386  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

rative  in  accepting  it.  Jesus  himself  never 
refers  to  it,  neither  does  John  nor  Paul  refer 
to  it,  and  even  the  two  genealogies  which  are 
given  in  the  gospels  that  report  the  miraculous 
birth  are  curiously  puzzling.  For  instance,  it  is 
somewhat  difficult  to  tell  why  Matthew  should 
give  the  genealogy  of  Joseph  when  Joseph  him- 
self is  supposed  by  the  doctrine  in  question  to 
have  had  no  part  in  the  matter.  But  in  any  case 
the  doctrine  itself  is  nothing  which  affects  our 
fundamental  Christian  ideas  at  all.  Nothing  what- 
ever of  importance  depends  on  it.  The  divinity 
of  Christ  and  his  incarnation  are  absolutely  inde- 
pendent of  it.  And  those  persons  who  try  to  con- 
nect these  doctrines  with  the  miraculous  birth, 
in  order  to  secure  his  sinlessness,  always  use  a 
very  limping  logic.  For  if  human  paternity  is  in- 
compatible with  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  a  human 
maternity  must  be  equally  so.  The  Roman  church 
has  shown  its  sense  of  this  fact  and  has  sought 
to  provide  for  it  by  its  doctrine  of  the  sinlessness 
of  Mary.  But  if  that  be  needed,  then  the  sinless- 
ness of  Mary's  parents  must  also  be  assumed,  and 
so  on  indefinitely. 

Historically,  this  discussion  of  the  virgin  birth 
has  generally  been  based  on  the  assumption  of 
the  undivineness  of  the  natural.  This  view  is 
ruled  out  by  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  imma- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    387 

nence  in  all  natural  processes,  so  that  God  is  not 
excluded  from  any  fact  or  process  by  calling  it 
natural.  The  person  of  Christ  and  his  incarna- 
tion are  the  important  thing,  not  the  mode  of 
his  birth.  As  already  said,  Paul  and  John  laid 
all  emphasis  on  the  former,  and  never  mentioned 
the  latter. 

As  respects  the  technical  infallibility  of  the 
Scriptures,  probably  no  doctrine  is  the  source  of 
more  difficulty  and  unbelief  than  this.  That  it 
cannot  be  maintained  every  one  knows,  that 
knows  anything  about  the  subject,  and  it  is 
nothing  less  than  astounding  to  find  the  leaders 
of  a  great  church,  supposed  to  be  scholarly  and 
intellectual,  setting  forth  as  late  as  1894  in  a 
pastoral  letter  this  doctrine  as  a  fundamental  of 
the  Christian  faith.  This  is  worse  than  blind 
leaders  of  the  blind. 

Such  leaders  should  confine  themselves  to 
deciding  and  condemning;  it  is  always  a  mis- 
take for  them  to  give  reasons,  that  is,  of  the 
scholarly  sort.  They  have,  however,  an  argument 
of  an  ethical  type  of  which  they  are  very  fond 
and  which  deserves  some  notice.  In  the  second 
pastoral  letter  referred  to,  it  is  said  that  persons 
"who  do  not  accept  the  traditional  views  of  the 
Church  should  keep  silent  or  depart;  and  it  is 
very  common  to  hear  such  persons  accused  of 


388  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

being  untrue  to  ordination  vows,  or  common 
honesty,  or  something  or  other  which  is  supposed 
to  be  rhetorically  effective.  This  makes  it  neces- 
sary to  devote  a  word  to  the  ethics  of  creed  sub- 
scription. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  this  matter  of 
truthfulness  can  be  settled  offhand  by  easy  ap- 
peals to  what  is  called  the  "  plain  man  "  or  the 
"  man  on  the  street."  And  it  is  easy  to  say,  If 
you  do  not  accept  this,  get  out ;  if  you  do  not 
accept  this,  it  is  dishonest  for  yon  to  remain  in  a 
church  that  does  accept  it.  To  the  plain  man 
or  the  man  on  the  street  of  course  this  sounds 
very  conclusive,  and  the  dishonesty  of  any 
doubter  on  this  point  is  very  manifest.  However, 
all  who  have  occasion  to  examine  this  general 
question  of  veracity  know  that  when  we  get  away 
from  some  very  simple  every-day  affairs  it  is  one 
of  the  most  slippery  and  difficult  notions  possible. 
I  have  recently  had  a  letter  from  an  anxious 
inquirer  asking  if  the  divine  veracity  is  not  hope- 
lessly impugned  by  the  general  illusiveness  of 
life,  the  sense  world,  etc.  And  in  our  human 
world  there  are  very  few  questions  which  can  be 
answered  by  yes  or  no,  and  particularly  is  this 
the  case  when  we  come  to  these  larger  and  more 
complex   questions  of   interpretation  of   creeds 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH        389 

and  documents.  It  is  well  known  that  all  creeds 
are  historical  compromises,  which  at  best  are  to 
be  accepted  only  for  substance  of  doctrine,  and 
which,  moreover,  always  allow  of  a  broad  and  a 
strict  interpretation.  It  is  only  as  this  is  under- 
stood that  any  creed  whatever  can  serve  as  a 
working  platform  for  a  body  of  men. 

In  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  the 
same  fact  appears.  We  have  the  State  Rights  in- 
terpretation and  the  Federal  interpretation,  and 
we  have  one  great  political  party  inclining  toward 
the  stricter  interpretation  and  another  great  po- 
litical party  inclining  toward  the  Federal  interpre- 
tation. It  would  be  in  the  highest  desfree  absurd 
for  members  of  these  parties  to  twit  those  of  the 
opposite  party  with  being  traitors  or  perjurers. 
The  fact  and  its  necessity  are  perfectly  recog- 
nized by  intelligent  people.  Similarly  with  creeds : 
a  fixed  creed  in  a  changing  world  must  admit  of 
being  interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  new 
conditions  under  which  it  is  applied,  or  the  new 
facts  which  emerge ;  otherwise  it  could  not  en- 
dure from  one  generation  to  another.  This, 
again,  is  understood  by  intelligent  persons,  and 
they  know  that  the  creed  is  to  admit  of  the  vari- 
ous interpretations  as  a  condition  of  being  a 
creed  at  all.  Change  of  creed  from  one  day  to 
another  would  be  impossible.  To  change  it  every 


390  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

few  years  would  be  scarcely  better.  Under  those 
circumstances  we  have  to  do  with  creeds  just 
what  we  do  with  laws  and  constitutions.  We 
must  interpret  them  not  merely  in  accordance 
with  past  beliefs,  but  also  in  accordance  with 
present  conditions  and  present  knowledge. 

Here,  again,  the  stickler  for  what  he  thinks  is 
veracity  may  interpose  that  creeds  must  be  inter- 
preted in  accordance  with  the  original  intention, 
and  here,  again,  he  only  shows  his  ignorance.  For 
the  fact  is  that  no  creed  of  any  age  and  complex- 
ity is  or  can  be  interpreted  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  original  intention.  The  simple  progress 
of  astronomical  knowledge  makes  it  impossible 
for  us  to  interpret,  say,  the  Apostles'  Creed  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  original  intention. 
Thus,  "  He  descended  into  Hell,"  "  He  ascended 
into  Heaven,"  and  so  on.  We  know  very  well 
what  the  notions  of  the  original  formers  of  this 
creed  were  in  these  clauses,  for  they  were  based 
upon  the  fancy  of  a  flat  earth  with  the  hell  down 
below  and  the  heaven  up  above.  But  since  the 
Copernican  astronomy  those  notions  of  course 
have  disappeared.  Similarly  we  could  find  psy- 
chology, philosophy,  and  moral  and  political 
science  setting  aside  many  a  notion  of  older 
writers,  so  much  so  that  we  agree  with  them,  if 
at  all,  in  the  essential  spirit  of  their  thought  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH   391 

only  to  a  slight  extent  in  the  real  contents  which 
they  had  in  mind. 

And  that  this  must  be  so  is  further  clear  from 
the  fact  that  the  opposite  view  is  to  make  truth 
itself  a  heresy.  If  we  could  suppose  that  a  com- 
pleted and  final  system  of  orthodoxy  had  been 
once  for  all  delivered  unto  the  saints,  then  we 
might  say  that  the  church  in  possession  of  this 
precious  treasure  might  rightly  require  all  who 
differ  from  it  to  depart.  But  then  we  know  that 
nothing  of  the  kind  has  existed.  Orthodoxy  it- 
self historically  has  been  a  very  changeable  quan- 
tity. There  are  very  few  of  the  stoutest  defenders 
of  the  faith  who  would  not  be  ashamed  of  things 
once  held  orthodox  and  counted  important.  It 
is  plain,  then,  that  Ave  must  provide  for  the  en- 
trance of  new  truth  into  our  system  of  religious 
thinking,  and  any  church  which  does  not  do  so 
and  which  insists  that  those  who  have  progressed 
in  thought  shall  keep  silent  or  depart,  condemns 
itself ;  and  its  leaders  show  thereby  that  they 
have  no  insight  into  the  truth  themselves,  and 
make  it  very  probable  that  their  pretended  in- 
terest is  of  the  vested  kind,  an  interest  in  the 
financial  aspects  of  the  case,  or  an  interest  in 
their  own  dominance  or  somethins"  of  that  sort. 

And  yet  persons  talk  so  ignorantly  on  this  sub- 
ject that  we  have  had  heresy  trials  conducted  on 


392  STUDIES  IN   CHRISTIANITY 

the  principle  that  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the 
statements  tried  was  not  to  be  considered  at  all, 
but  only  whether  they  agreed  with  the  profession 
of  faith.  At  the  trial  of  Professor  Henry  Preserved 
Smith  some  years  ago  this  principle  was  announced 
and  was  received  with  very  great  satisfaction  by 
the  General  Assembly,  as  it  made  it  exceedingly 
easy  to  dispose  of  the  professor.  For  plainly  his 
views  on  higher  criticism  could  hardly  be  expected 
to  agree  with  the  profession  of  faith  made  hun- 
dreds of  years  before  higher  criticism  had  been 
dreamed  of.  And  at  a  still  later  trial  for  heresy 
the  same  principle  was  announced  with  equal  sat- 
isfaction, as  being  something  like  a  revelation 
from  above.  But  what  a  pitiable  comment  on  the 
pretense  of  high  veracity  and  zeal  for  the  truth  !  If 
this  principle  of  interpretation  which  makes  truth 
itself  a  heresy  unless  it  agrees  with  traditional 
formulas  were  strictly  applied,  it  would  result  in 
turning  over  all  our  churches  and  their  property 
to  a  few  ignoramuses,  so  dull  and  so  ignorant  as 
to  be  scarcely  above  the  brute.  Meanwhile  the 
churches  would  exist  not  to  seek  and  proclaim 
the  truth,  but  to  maintain  a  profession  of  faith, 
although  it  had  been  proved  to  be  false !  If  that 
is  what  the  churches  are  for,  they  ought  to  spare 
us  their  reflections  on  truth  and  honesty.  We 
commend  as  an  interesting  problem  for  ecclesi- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    393 

astical  casuists  the  question,  How  long  may  a 
church  continue  to  teach  what  is  known  not  to 
be  so? 

Plainly  when  the  professional  ark-saver  begins 
to  make  rhetorical  flourishes  about  truth  and 
truthfulness,  he  soon  gets  out  of  his  depth.  It 
is  indeed  engaging  to  find  such  show  of  zeal,  but 
veracity  has  never  been  a  prominent  orthodox 
virtue.  And  we  need  not  go  back  to  the  times  of 
Huss  when  it  was  declared,  to  the  scandal  of  the 
secular  authorities,  that  faith  need  never  be  kept 
with  heretics,  for  we  can  find  illustrations  much 
nearer  our  own  day.  A  legal  friend  lately  re- 
marked that  he  had  had  somewhat  to  do  with 
ecclesiastical  trials  and  had  never  found  one 
conducted  with  much  regard  for  right  or  truth, 
certainly  none  conducted  in  a  way  required  in 
secular  courts.  An  illustration :  A  ministerial 
acquaintance  of  mine  some  time  ago  was  on  a 
committee  to  report  on  the  orthodoxy  of  a  certain 
book.  When  the  committee  met  this  person  asked 
how  many  of  the  committee  had  read  the  book 
in  question.  The  question  proved  embarrassing, 
and  he  insisted  upon  an  answer.  Then  it  turned 
out  that  four  men  of  the  seven  composing  the 
committee  had  never  seen  the  book.  But  they  were 
perfectly  ready  to  pass  judgment  upon  it.  Such 
a  thing  could  not  have  happened  in  any  secular 


394  STUDIES   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

court  under  the  sun,  and  in  a  secular  court  such 
a  committee  would  have  been  dismissed  with  se- 
verest rebuke  and  most  likely  heavily  fined  for  con- 
tempt of  court.  But  these  godly  people  did  not 
need  to  take  into  account  such  commonplace  mat- 
ters as  fairness  and  truth  and  justice.  They  had 
the  witness  in  themselves.  They  had  not  to  dis- 
cuss, they  needed  only  to  decide.  They  had  not  to 
refute;  it  was  theirs  to  condemn.  Now  people  of 
this  sort  must  not  talk  too  much  about  veracity 
or  twit  with  inveracity  those  who  are  trying  to 
mediate  between  the  old  and  the  new  ;  for  in 
my  opinion  there  is  no  person  less  careful  of  the 
truth  and  more  willing  to  give  ear  to  evidence 
that  jumps  with  his  disposition,  and  more  unready 
to  deal  impartially  with  evidence,  than  precisely 
this  ecclesiastic  who  talks  about  veracity  and  calls 
upon  those  who  differ  from  him  to  be  silent  or 
depart.  On  the  contrary,  they  owe  it  to  the  truth 
and  the  Church  alike  neither  to  be  silent  nor  to 
depart,  but  to  stay  where  they  are  and  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  truth  in  all  wise  and  proper  ways. 
Only  thus  can  religious  thought  progress.  To 
depart  would  be  to  deprive  the  Church  of  intel- 
ligence and  leave  it  to  flounder  and  smother  in 
superstition,  like  the  brainless  monsters  of  ancient 
times  that  floundered  and  perished  in  palfleouto- 
logical  swamps. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    395 

But  surely,  it  will  be  said,  there  is,  or  ought 
to  be,  such  a  thing  as  loyalty  to  ordination  vows. 
Of  course  there  is,  and  it  lies  in  loyalty  to  what 
I  have  called  the  fundamental  platform  and  pro- 
gramme of  Christianity.  Whoever  departs  from 
this  must  be  judged  to  have  renounced  our  dis- 
tinctively Christian  teaching  and  should  seek 
some  other  fold.  But  generally  these  so-called 
heresy  cases  are  not  properly  such,  but  rather 
cases  of  practical  wisdom  and  efficiency,  and 
they  should  be  dealt  with  on  that  line.  When 
any  minister  differs  so  widely  from  his  brethren 
that  he  cannot  work  with  them,  his  place  is  else- 
where, not  because  he  is  a  heretic,  but  because 
of  his  inability  to  stand  on  the  same  working 
platform.  Be  he  heretic  or  orthodox,  he  is  im- 
practicable, and  in  so  far  undesirable  as  a  Chris- 
tian teacher.  A  man  must  have  some  measure 
of  sympathy  with  the  aims  of  a  political  party  in 
order  to  be  a  member  of  it.  If  he  is  purely  and 
only  and  always  a  mugwump,  he  must  go  else- 
where. The  same  is  true  of  church  affiliation. 

Again,  a  minister  may  have  sundry  advanced 
views  on  biblical  or  doctrinal  matters,  and  may 
be  quite  correct  in  holding  them.  At  the  same 
time  he  may  become  so  obsessed  by  them  as  to 
make  them  practically  false  and  make  himself  a 
nuisance.  He  may  be  persuaded  of  the  post-Mosaic 


396  STUDIES  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  the  plurality  of  Isaiahs, 
and  similar  matter,  and  thereafter  be  unable  to  see 
or  say  anything  else.  He  denies  that  Moses  wrote 
the  Pentateuch,  or  that  there  was  a  single  Isaiah, 
or  the  historicity  of  the  book  of  Daniel,  or  the 
virgin  birth  of  our  Lord  ;  and  these  denials  bulk 
so  large  in  his  mind  that  he  forgets  the  gospel 
itself.  Such  a  minister  might  rightly  be  cashiered, 
not  on  the  ground  of  heterodoxy,  but  for  practi- 
cal unwisdom.  His  views  are  not  properly  hetero- 
dox, but  he  is  not  a  useful,  and  may  be  a  mis- 
chievous, person.  Undoubtedly  this  is  sometimes 
the  fact  in  what  are  called  heresy  cases ;  and  it  is  a 
great  mistake  to  raise  the  question  of  heresy  in- 
stead of  the  practical  question  of  efficiency.  The 
indictment  is  wrongly  drawn. 

In  another  point  the  advanced  thinker  often 
fails  as  a  religious  teacher.  He  overlooks  the  in- 
strumental character  of  language  and  supposes 
that  language  itself  says  something.  Of  course 
language  is  only  a  means  for  expressing  thought, 
and  that  language  is  best  which  best  expresses 
the  thought.  It  follows  that  the  value  of  language 
is  relative  to  the  person  addressed.  It  further 
follows  that  the  language  for  scholars  may  not 
be  the  best  language  for  the  "  plain  man  "  or 
the  "  man  of  the  street."  Even  shibboleths  may 
have  their  use  at  times,  and  may  more  accurately 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    397 

convey  our  thought  than  the  more  careful  lan- 
guage of  the  schools.  The  religious  teacher  should 
understand  this.  He  should  aim  to  be  understood, 
and  in  order  to  this  he  must  use  "  langfuasfe  un- 
derstanded  of  the  people."  If  any  one  can  find 
religious  help  in  some  crude  form  of  speech  or 
some  crude  symbol,  I  should  be  willing  for  him 
to  have  it.  If  any  one  cannot  believe  in  God  the 
Father  and  in  his  Son  without  believing-  in  the 
whale  of  Jonah  or  the  ass  that  spoke,  or  the  talk- 
ing serpent  and  other  saving  truths  of  that  kind, 
I  should  say.  By  all  means  believe  in  them.  If 
these  are  the  only  things  that  hold  you  to  the 
deeper  truths  of  religion,  hold  on  to  them  with  all 
your  might ;  only  you  must  not  insist  that  others 
also  must  believe  in  them. 

So  far  the  Church  may  go  in  condescension  to 
ignorance,  but  no  farther.  The  Church  should 
always  be  a  church  for  the  ignorant,  but  it  should 
never  be  an  ignorant  church.  Ignorance  can  do 
little  for  the  ignorant  in  any  field,  and  least  of  all 
in  religion.  Ignorance  left  to  itself  must  tend  to 
grovel  in  superstition.  Nothing  but  the  clear,  dry 
light  of  intellect  can  save  religion  from  this  fate 
which  has  overtaken,  not  only  the  outlying  non- 
Christian  religions,  but  Christianity  itself  in  a 
great  many  places,  say  the  churches  of  Abys- 
sinia and  northern  Africa  and  western  Asia.  The 


398  STUDIES   IN  CHRISTIANITY 

Christianity  of  these  churches  is  scarcely  higher 
than  sorcery  and  incantation,  and  the  reason  is 
the  lack  of  intellect  and  its  free  play.  Among 
ourselves  as  soon  as  the  control  of  intellect  is 
withdrawn  we  have  the  fantastic  excesses  of  the 
multitudinous  sects,  such  as  the  Holy  Jumpers, 
etc.,  who  fancy  that  God  is  pleased  with  their 
ignorance  and  mistake  their  religious  indecency 
for  a  special  mark  of  divine  illumination.  ''  God 
don't  need  your  book-larnin',''  one  such  saint 
said  to  Dr.  South.  "No,"  was  the  reply,  "and 
he  does  n't  need  your  ignorance,  either."  We  are 
not  saved  by  taste,  good  or  bad ;  but  good  taste 
is  preferable,  even  in  religion. 

The  Church  certainly  has  other  interests  than 
those  of  the  intellect,  and  our  nominal  leaders  are 
by  no  means  sinners  above  all  men  that  dwell  at 
Jerusalem.  But  they  are  seldom  intellectual  lead- 
ers, and  they  are  required  by  their  position  to 
decide  on  questions  beyond  them.  And  this  is  an 
evil  thing  under  the  sun.  Ignorance  in  high  places 
is  increasingly  dangerous.  Had  our  churches  in 
the  last  generation  had  real  leaders,  who  were 
equal  to  their  position,  and  who  commanded  the 
respect  of  the  churches  by  their  scholarship  and 
their  character,  to  speak  about  the  disturbing 
religious  questions  of  our  time  and  to  say  to  the 
churches :  These  questions  at  best  are  of  only  sub- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUTH    399 

ordinate  importance  and  do  not  affect  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  faith,  we  should  have  been  saved 
much  confusion,  friction,  and  disgrace.  But  in- 
stead of  that  we  had  men  who  were  not  equal  to 
their  position,  men  whose  scholarship  and  charac- 
ter did  not  command  the  respect  of  the  commu- 
nity, and  the  result  is  familiar  to  all  of  us. 

These  things  ought  not  so  to  be,  but  so  they 
are,  and  so  they  will  continue  to  be  until  the 
Church  gets  a  deeper  sense  of  its  relation  to  the 
truth  and  of  its  obligations  to  it.  Only  thus  can 
this  age-long  scandal  of  a  church  hostile  to  the 
truth  and  perpetually  compelled  to  surrender  with 
dishonor  be  done  away. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


Date  Due 


'P  ^^7    t 

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i 

1 

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1    ■           i 

MAY  1  4  '8g 

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